|
Over the next few months, a few things happen. The House of Lords will ask Hasseldorf to be the new, interim leader, and he refuses. Lingering pro-LeSatte sentiment in the people will lead to demonstrations, violence, and vandalism. It begins to cool over time.
Baron Etienne LeSatte and around 35 of his followers are sentenced to treason, murder, and other crimes, and killed. We find out that Katrina was secretly helping Baron Hasseldorf behind the scenes, since she didn’t trust Baron LeSatte with his growing power base and willingness to cross people he supported. That’s where his extra mechs came from. Sure, he is still pro-Victor, but she doesn’t have a lot to worry about with Trent. (And Victor didn’t send any help at all) Meanwhile, the people have clearly gotten tired of both noble houses on the planet, and local nobility a bit everywhere. There is a small, pro-Celestial Coalition bubble going on. We emerged with the best rating over the others, we contained the city fighting, and more. At a time when the planet is becoming anti-Hasseldorf and anti-LeSatte, we came out in the same place and area. There has been a decent enough peace now. Charged against the Hassledorfs were dropped after evidence showed that LeSatte forces simply wore Hasseldorf uniforms in their attack on the capital. Hasseldorf is now the General the local forces and rebuilding the military. A new Lord, Erich Sheridan, who is new to politics, is doing quite well. END OF TRACK THREE – DOWN TO THE WIRE |
BEGINNING OF TRACK FOUR – BROTHER AGAINST BROTHER AGAINST BROTHER
After more than two months of rebuilding and slowly diminishing numbers of pro-LeSatte activity among the population, things are starting to look up… October 10, 3063 – A medium sized flotilla pulls into the system at the zenith point with the colors of the Federated Suns. A known pro-Katrina unit commander pops on screen – Paul Pierce, who has a battalion of forces, mostly mechs with some infantry and tanks, is here to secure Zurich “for the duration of the crisis.” A unit from the Lyran Guards begins to leave the JumpShips and burn for Zurich. They are responding to signals for help that Baron LeSatte sent out. They’ll arrive at the planet in four days. October 11, 3063 – Leading a force of the 1st Kestrel Grenadiers from the fighting on Nanking, this pro-Davion unit has arrived at the nadir point, and announced their intention to basically do the same, and secure Zurich in the name of Victor. They heard that Katrina loyalists had launched for Zurich, and dispatched a battalion to pop over from Nanking, one jump away. General Hasseldorf, Colonel Ward, and Lord Erich Sheridan have all told both units they are not allowed to land on Zurich, they are not welcome here, and any arrival will be met with force. Both units refuse. Both units have issued an ultimatum – the planetary government, planetary garrison, and Ward’s mercs must surrender or they will be viewed as traitors and attacked without mercy. As the strongest unit on the planet, by far, the Shadow Battalion will be used as exclusively as possible against these folks. Col. Ward reminds the government of Duke Essex’s offer for more aid if it was needed. They place a call to the Duke and speak with him now, before the enemy lands. |
Beginning of Scenario 14 – Stick the Landing
Daosho DropPort, Zurich October 14, 3063 – After announcing that they would be landing in force in the capital’s DropPort, the pro-Katrina force was told, once more, to basically shove off, and any ships that moves to land their would be fired upon. Suspecting that this is a bluff, the Commander Pierce uses a small amount of his forces to land, and then to gain control of the DropPort so that the rest of his forces may land there. Our best company, Bruiser Company, is sent to play Defense. A Union DropShip is escorted by a quartet of aerospace fighters. We are so focused on taking down the fighters that we can’t stop the DropShip in time. Within a few minutes, two of the fighters survive and withdraw, and a company of Mechs pops out, still far away from our unit. Nice, fun, pro-Katrina units have arrived. They can’t get bogged down in a prolonged battle with us, with the pro-Victor forces right behind. If they can’t take this DropPort quickly, they’ll move on. They have nine turns to defeat us or force us to retreat. If they do not, then they lose. If we force them back off, they will retreat to the Union, it’ll take off, and land somewhere else with the rest of the fleet. Everybody say Hi Katrina! Barghest vet Garm Fireball Axman Berserker vet Warhammer Commando Griffin Maelstrom vet Cerberus Stealth Cobra And we have Bruiser Company with us. Quietly, behind the scene, I’ve been leveling up pilots as they’ve gotten more kills, and we had three levels gained in Bruiser, who now has a 53098 BV. |
Here we go!
Turn 1 – We lose init. I set up around the buildings to the north, and create strike force there. I unload a lot of weapons onto their Cerberus. Our Marauder IIc blows the RA off their Cerberus while our Warhammer IIc does the same with its RL. Our Gladiator finishes it by destroyed the RT. Meanwhile, a gauss rifle slug from our Highlander IIc busts the head of their Axman and it dies. Our Shadow Hawk IIc busts their Fireball for an engine hit. Their Fireball tumbles. Only the Warhammer Iic took more than 20 damage that turn. In one turn we took out two mechs and damaged a third. But they keep coming, thinking it might be luck or something? Turn 2 – We win init. Their Maelstrom begins ot push towards our Archer and to outflank us. I base it with our Dasher and Shadow Hawk Iic, thereby shutting down the route behind the building. I push forward lots more. Their Fireball stands and runs away. I leap our PXH next to it. Our Gladiator bases their Griffin. Our PXH nails the LA, LT, and CT of their Fireball. Dead mech Our Rifleman IIc gets a limb blown off on the Maelstrom, RA Then the Archer’s LRMs hit the enginex3 on their Maelstrom, shutting it down Our Gladiator cracks their Griffin with hits on the engine, LRM20, foot achator, hand, then destroyed a LL. Warhammer IIc destroys the LL on their Cobra, the its LA and LT ammo hit – dead mech. Our Atlas destroys the LL, CT and LT of their Garm. Highlander IIc destroys the LT of their Griffin and it shuts down And in two rounds, we have destroyed, or savaged, their Griffin 3M, Fireball, Axman 1N, Cerberus, Maelstrom, Cobra, and Garm. They head back to the Union DropShip and we let them. Only five mechs escape – Barghest, Berserker, Commando, Stealth, Warhammer Maelstrom reattach RA, enginex3, gyro Cerberus, reattach RA, RL, missing RT Axman missing H Fireball, H, RT, RA, LL, RL Cobra RA, H, RT Garm H, RL, LA, RA Griffin missing LL, LT Kills – Gladiator, Highlander IIcx2, Phoenix Hawk, Archer, Warhammer IIc, Atlas They load back up, and head out, and then land in a large field to the north of Daosho. |
BEGINNINING OF SCENARIO 14b – Once Again Unto the Breech
Oct 15, 3063 – The pro-Victor unit does the exact same thing, trying to secure the landing in the DropPort. They have a high opinion of themselves, vs our simple mechs. And once again, Bruiser Company will send them off. We had two more level ups from yesterday! Our leader, Lt. Patricia Kaas, gained tactical genius. She was working on it for a while, and it paid off. New BV? 53575. Hello Victor! Banshee Victor 10D Cestus Wolverine Thunder Hawk Talon Enfield Warhammer Firestarter-OF Crusader 5M Centurion Rakshasa After seeing the pro-Katrina folks get pummeled badly yesterday, they are sending a very heavy, very advanced, and very experienced unit. These are a battalion of the 1st Kestrel, and they are a very highly decorated unit. In fact, 9 of the 12 mechs are piloted by elite mechwarriors. Because they are elites, and they have a lot of new power, this is not a foe we should take lightly. Take that Thunder Hawk, as an example. It features a trinity of gauss rifles. On an elite pilot, and a 100 ton body, that’s something seriously concerning. Other assaults include the Victor and Banshee, both upgraded. In fact, that variant of the Victor is new, and features an ultra AC20, SRM4 streak, and two er medium lasers, and still has no XL engine at all. That clearly has a nasty zone of control. This company is no slouch – the 1st Kestrel are coming hard at us. Their BV is in the mid 30s |
We are on the same map as yesterday. The buildings were not damaged by the pro-Kat folks, so it’s in the same shape after pulling off salvage and such from them. Our Dragonfly rushes ten spaces and bases their Centurion.
Turn 1 – We lose init. Our Marauder IIc begins the battle by carving into their Crusader 5M and going internal in three places Our Warhammer IIc follows that with a barrage at their CRD and destroys LA Our Highlander IIc blasts their Centurion, destroys the LT, and it shuts down Their Warhammer lances an ER PPC into our Dasher (who moved +10 and it as long range too) for an engine hit. Their Firestarter OF follows that, long range, with an ER Larser Laser to the RT and destroys it. Their Crusader gets a through armor critical on the Warhammer Iic and hits the engine and gyro once each Falls? Warhammer IIc, Dasher, Crusader (Despite taking 80+, their Thunder Hawk is still up) Turn 2 – We win init. I eject the Dasher. They are charging us! Wow. Ballsy. I back up a bit. Our Warhammer IIc stands and then runs behind a building. I charge the Gladiator in with MASC to help keep the attention off the Warhammer IIC. Our SHD IIc bases their Enfield as it creeps behind the building to the rear with our PXH jumps and bases it to the rear. I leap the D Fly behind their Thunder Hawk. Their Crusader rises too. Their Banshee’s gauss rifle smashes the RT of our Gladiator and destroys it. Our PXH nails the engine, twice, on their Enfield Our Atlas hits the Thunder Hawks gauss rifle, dead LT, and dead mech. Our Gladiator nails the RA on their Firestarter OmniMech and its destroyed. Who falls? Our Gladiator, and their Enfield. Turn 3 – We lose init. I eject the Gladiator. They’ve taken out two of our mechs, and wounded the Warhammer IIc, so I don’t think they are leaving right now. We’ve taken out a medium and an assault, with a badly torn Crusader, Enfield and FS. I run in the Atlas. Their Enfield rises and runs to the edge the map, looking to flee next turn. They bring the Rakshasa up to the Enfield flank to help out. Their Crusader falls after breaking into a heavy building , and hits a leg actuator a pair of times. Our Shadow Hawk IIc blasts the RL off their Enfield before hitting the LB ammo and CASE takes out the RT. Our Rifleman IIc blasts their Crusader and doles out a bit of damage. Their Talon destroys the ammo on our Shadow Hawk IIc’s LT and it explodes, CASE LRMs from our Archer pepper their FS until its RT is destroyed. Dead mech Our Dragonfly nails the gyro once on their Cestus Then our Marauder Iic destroys the Cestus’s CT. Who falls? Shadow Hawk Iic – pilot blacks out. They have bashed through some buildings here in the DropPort. They pull out, with 5 mechs down. The Crusader got out. Firestarter Of missing RA, RT Enfield, reattach RL, missing RT Crusader 5M missing LA Centurion missing LT Thunder Hawk, missing LT Cestus H, LL, RL, RT, LT, LA Kills – Highlander IIc, Atlas, Shadow Hawk IIc, Archer, MAD IIc, Us – Dasher, missing RT, engine Warhammer IIc gyro, engine Gladiator, missing RT Shadow Hawk Iic missing LT That was our worst fight yet! PR: LeSatte: -25 Hasseldorf : -12 Us: +34 Katrina – 29 Mechs Victor – 31 Mechs After being sent off, the 1st Kestrel also take their unit and land it ot the south of the city of Daosho. END OF SCENARIO FOURTEEN |
Over the next few days, each unit begins to unload, set up camp, and get ready.
Both of the units are surprised. They were defeated in the DropPort and forced out, they weren’t expecting an elite battalion of mercs on world. They do some research, find out about the Shadow Battalion, and realize they probably need some reinforcements. Envoys from the local government go into each camp, and again, renew their plea for the forces to leave Zurich. The one who called for aid, LeSatte, had usurped his authority, and arrested a neutral House of Lords. It was a coup, that has since been ended. But the pro-Katrina force points out that she is the legally ruling leader of the Federated Suns, and that they are therefore simply a legal occupying force. Meanwhile, the pro-Victor side of the 1st is surprised and disappointed that a planet currently with a pro-Victor general would tell them to leave and fight them, especially since the pro-Katrina side lost in the war, but they are confident that they need to take this planet for Vic. Both point out that they did not know about the recent civil war on Zurich, and in both cases it makes them more determined to take the planet for their side. Expecting problems, we send Sealion Company to garrison nearby Traussen, because they will likely want reinforcements. |
Beginning of Scenario Fifteen – The Final Appeal
Traussen, Zurich October 25, 3063 – Seeing the obvious benefits in needing reinforcements both forces dispatch troops o nearby Traussen to grab the HPS station there and send out for more troops. Both sides send in forces into the town of Traussen to take the HPG dorks. We have Sealion Company defending 1st Kestrel – Banshee Victor 10D Wolverine * Talon * Warhammer Rakshasa Crusader 5M Wolfhound Templar O Penetrator Nightstar Dervish * Most are elite. Paul Pierces Lyran Guards Barghest * Stealth Berserker * Warhammer Commando Devastator * Battle Hawk Shadow Hawk Marauder 5S * Lynx 9R Highlander * Hatchetman Asterisks are vets. In very Lyran fashion, they added some assault mechs to their unit (Devastator, Highlander). Here we go! |
We need to keep them from getting to the HPG station
Our map has a lot of roads, and level 1 hills. Nothing else. Turn 1 - We win init. We charge the Lyran position. Can’t hide on this map. This is not a good place to fight for our unit. Just got to do it though. A Battle hawk bases our Grizzly. Our SHD IIc bases their Commando and the Dragonfly jumps above and next to it as well. Our SHD IIc takes out the LT of their Commando Their Stealth hits the H of our Archer Masakari weapons destroy the LA of their Warhammer Our Archer nails some leg actuators on their Warhammer Of the 10 mechs that took 20+ damage, just their Warhammer falls. Turn 2 – We lose init. They eject the Warhammer. I back up some folks like the Galahad and Masakari. Their Commando runs to the edge to retreat. I hop the Dragonfly over again. Our Locust bases their Shadow Hawk. For two turns in a row, none have skidded while running and turning on the roads. They have mechs charging each other (like the Barghest an Hatchetman.) Right now is about more like attacks of opportunity rather than smashery. Our Masakari destroys the LT of their injured marauder – dead mech A gauss slug from our Galahad destroys the La of their Shadow hawk Conner Ward’s Mad Cat nails the hip on their Berserker Our Grasshopper hits the AC5 ammo on their Shadow Hawk and….boom! CASE , noXl engine. Their Templar nails the gauss rifle on our Galahad’s RA and its destroyed. Medium pulse laser to the Galahad’s H follows, and it goes internal, and hits the cockpit. Dead mech and dead mechwarrior. That sucks. The 1st’s Penetrator destroys the LL of the Commando. People who fall – Commando, Berserker, Shadow hawk People who don’t –Hatchetman, Devastator, Masakari, Warhammer, Barghest Turn 3 – We lose init. They eject the Commando. I backup some more, hope that they keep hitting each other. We need the field to get our Galahad back. Their Shadow Hawk tried to stand, fell, and the pilot blacks out. I leap our Dragonfly next to their Hatchetman. Our Crusader runs next to the Shadow Hawk. Grizzly jumps next to their Battle Hawk. Our SHD IIc leaps next to their Lynx. Their Stealth’s MASC fails and it falls after hitting its hip. The Lyran Barghest destroys the RT of the 1sts Wolfhound Our Crusader aims a pair of medium pulse lasers at the Shadow Hawk’s H. One hits, the other gets a limb blown off crit on the RA. The 1sts Warhammer nails an engine on their Barghest The Lyran Devastator destroys the LL and LT of their Wolfhound Our Masakari nails the gyro once on their Templar The 1st’s Wolverine nails the gyro and engine once each on the Barghest. It falls, destroys its LT and is dead. Our Archer takes out the targeting computer of their Templar Their Templar devastates our Locust – LA, LT, RA all destroyed The 1st Penetrator destroys the RT on the Shadow Hawk Our Mad Cat destroys the LT on their Templar. Dead mech. (we’ll take out the RT as well) Who falls? Wolfhound, who destroys their CT and is dead. Our Locust Who doesn’t? Our Crusader and Mad Cat, Battle Hawk, Hatchetman Our Grizzly kicks and destroys the RL on their Battle Hawk Turn 4 - We lose init. I eject our Locust. Their Hatchetman runs and falls. This turn I focus a lot of fire on the 1st Warhammer. The 1st Banshee destroys the Lyran Stealth’s LA Our Marauder Iic destroys the RT on their Warhammer Their Wrahammer destroys the LT of the Stealth and its down Our Shadow Hawk IIc nails the engine once on a Berserker The 1st Talon destroys the Berserker;s LA and hits an engine as well Our Griffin IIc gest a limb blown off on their Warhammer’s RL, and hits the gyro x2 and engine x1 It falls and destroys its CT. Our Mad Cat, Marauder IIc and Grizz took 20+ but don’t fall Turn 5 – We win init. Their Berserker ejects. The Lyran forces begin to withdraw. Their Devastator, Highlander, and Lynx flee. Their Hatchetman rises and does the same. Their B hawk can’t rise, so they eject it. Now it’s just us and the 1st. They are down a Wolfhound, Templar, and Warhammer. We are down a Galahad, Locust, and we have a damaged Mad Cat and Crusader. All of theirs are fine. So they’ll stay on the field right now. Grasshopper leaps next to ,m and above, their Dervish. They go internal on our Grasshopper in the arms. Then the Victor destroys the RA on the Hopper. Our Mad Cat nails the LB10X ammo on their Nightstar, CASE explosion contained mech shut down. Before it dies it destroyed the Hopper’s RT section with an ammo hit as well – no CASE so it’s just dead. Well, we each killed a mech of the other. Turn 6 – We win init. Our Masakari bases their Penetrator. ER PPC from the Masakari carves the H off their Penetrator. Our Mad Cat also destroyed its RA. Their Wolverine falls. Our masakari and Grizzly do not, and their Rakshasa doesn’t either. Turn 7 – We win init again. I leap our Grizzly out of danger, and turn our back (more armor on the back than the front for the torso) . Their Wolverine rises and MASC’s away. Our Dragonfly runs up to their Rakshasa. Our Griffin IIc joins them, They crack the arms in our Griffin IIc and Crusader. But our Mad Cat hits the gauss in the Banshee 5S’s LT, which causes the torso to be destroyed, dead mech. Who falls? Their Rakshasa. Our crusader, Masakari and Griffin Iic are still standing. Our Dragonfly kicks and destroys the LT on their Rakshasa, shut down mech And with that, the 1st Kestrel withdraw as well. They have their Crusader, Wolverine, Victor, Talon, and Dervish leaving. We capture or destroy 7 of their units. Warhammer 7S Rl, LL, LT, LA, RA< H Berserker missing LA, enginex2 Penetrator missing H, RA Banshee, missing LT Rakshasa missing LT Stealth missing LA, LT, RL, LA Wolfhound missing H, RL, LA, RA Shadow Hawk 5D missing LA, LT, RT, reattach RA Commando missing LT Warhammer missing LA (Lyran) Marauder missing LT Nightstar missing LT Templar, gyro, missing RT, LT Barghest, gyron, enginex2, missing LT Battle hawk missing RL Ejected – Warhammer, Commando, Berserker, Battle Hawk Us – Galahad missing RA, cockpit – DEAD MECHWARRIOR Locust – missing RA, LA, LT Grasshopper H, LL Kills – Masakarix2, Mad Catx3, Griffin IIc, Dragonfly PR: LeSatte: -25 Hasseldorf : -12 Us: +37 Katrina – 21 Mechs Victor – 24 Mechs END OF SCENARIO FIFTEEN |
(We’re skipping 16 - it's just part one of what is about to happen, and doesn't suit our story line)
After reeling from their loss in Draussen, and repairing and refitting their mechs, the units are about to move out against each other, and once again, we’ll get caught in the middle. |
Beginning of Scenario 17 – For the Motherland!
Daosho,, Zurich October 27, 3063 – Both the pro-Davion 1st Kestrel and the pro-Katrina Lyran Guards are moving towards each other and will meet to battle in Daosho. We have Shadow Company here garrisoning. They move out to protest the fighting in the capital city. The local defenders move out as well, and will be on another flank of the city, fighting. Fighting in the city again. Grr! We have all 12 mechs and the two squads of Elemental Infantry The elite 1st: Victor 10D Wolverine * Talon * Crusader 5M Dervish * Salamander Phoenix Hawk JagerMech III Javelin Orion BlackJack O Wolf Trap * Our Lyran Foes? Devastator * Stalker Cerberus * Axman Lynx 9R Highlander * Hatchetman Dragon Fire * Falconer Fireball Griffin Guillotine 5M Again, the Lyrans have their typical heavy and assault answer to things. * are veterans. They have 5 assault mechs and two heavies at the top of their class (75 tons) . Here we go! We need to successfully defend the city. |
Turn 1 – We win init. I can barely see anyone. I hold back and play defense, mostly. I can’t see the battle, but someone is attacking something massively, and someone blacks out. Our Lynx sinks a lot of damage into their Talon, which falls.
Turn 2 – We win init again. As they move in the north, I emerge a few units behind buildings to do some fighting. Our Apollo cracks the engine, x2 on their Talon. Some stuff gets destroyed, etc. Our Lynx nails a hip actuator on their Orion. Our Orion Iic then destroys the RT and CT of their Talon, dead mech. No tumbles. Turn 3 – We lose init. A Crusader steps on the northern flank, I run our Flashman up to it. I put Elementals on a roof to help see the area. Our Lynx destroys the LA on their Orion, and our Zeus cracks its engine and LB10x. Their Orion falls, destroys its RT and is destroyed. Also falling? Crusader and Griffin. And our Zeus, who just took 20+ damage but couldn’t get that 4. Their CRD pilot blacks out Our Flashman kicks, hits the CRD’s H and its destroyed. Turn 4 – We win init. I run the Gallowglas ot the north to continue fighting there, since more 1st mechs are pouring through the narrow window at the top. Steiner is being cautious. Our Elementals continue to move to a higher spot to socut the map out. After falling once, our Zeus rises and runs behinds a building. Their JagerMech III takes the spot of the CRD. Our Orion Iic bases it. Stuff appears to be killed more. Not sure what. Looks like 3 or 4 units were destroyed. TTwo engine explosions over there were nasty it seems. The Dragonfire’s RT is destroyed though, I can tell that. Our Phoenix hawk hits the LRM ammo on their Griffin, and it ignites – CASE< dead mech. They hit our PXH a bunch. Our Orion Iic destroys the JM III RT, dead mech. Multiple buildings collapse. Some long range weapons tear into our Elemental squad. Our Orion and PXH fall and the Pixie blacks out. Turn 5 – We win init. Our Orion Iic rises and backs up. Our Flashman runs through the hole and emerges by their Victor, Salamander, Blackjack O and Wolverine. Our Lynx hops to the spot to the rear of the Flashman, where the JMIII and Crusader stood. Our Shootist runs up to flank them in the north. OI leap the Elementals back down – I don’t want them destroyed or anything. Oyu blacked out PXH ;loses it’s RL. Our Highlander’s weapons destroy the opposing Lynx’s H. We also destroyed its RL and LA with our Grand Crusader and Starslayer. I can tell another unseen mech is blasted. They destroy our PXH’s RT and it shuts down. No one falls. In order to connect to the game, and see where everything is, I close it down, load the save, and then connect as the various bots to see who was destroyed. I think the 1st have been pushed around enough to flee, but I have no idea. Hold on. Recent Deaths: Round 5 - 1st Phoenix Hawk killed by Guard’s stalker Round 2 - Guard’s Dragon Fire destroyed 1st’s Dervish 7D CT Round 3 – Guard Highlander destroys LA on 1st Wolf Trap Round 4 – 1st Wolf Trap takes out Guard Dragon Fire; Guard Dragon Fire, before dying, takes out 1st’s Javelin, which causes an engine explosion. Buildings destroyed. That explosion destroys the 1st’s Wolf Trap’s RT and LL. Not sure of what is left? 1st Kestral, Elite, pro-Davion – Salamander, Victor, Wolverine, Blackjack O We have damaged the Wolverine and Victor that turn. Lyran Guard – Devastator, Falconer, Fireball, Guillotine, Axman, Hatchetman, Stalker, Cerebus, Highlander So the 1st Kestral decide to quit the map, and voluntarily leave under a flag of truce. Turn 6 – We lose initiative. I turn and move my stuff towards the southern flank. Their Cerberus hits the gauss ammo in our Highlander. No one falls. Turn 7 – We lose init again. I need more intel, so I leap some Elementals back up on the roof. Flashman next to their Stalker. How about the Lynx as well? We focus some fire on the Guillotine, and a bit on the Stalker as well. Our Highlander nails an engine and foot on the Guillotine. Our Flashman nails a hip and foot on the Stalker. Their Guillotine destroys the RT on our Highlander. Our Starslayer takes out the RL on the Stalker. Then our Elementals hit the Stalker’s AMS ammo, and CASE, but XL shuts it down. Their Guillotine falls, but our Highlander doesn’t. The Guillotine pilot blacks out. I’ll make a trade of my Highlander torso for a heavy mech every single time. We have so many badly damaged Mechs that turn that I felt we might lose multiples. Taking out the assault Stalker and freezing the Guillotine was a huge hit, because our Zeus, a suit of Elementals, the Highlander, Lynx, Orion IIc and Grand Crusader are all hugely damaged. Turn 8 – We win init. I lead with my Gallowglas, since it’s not been zarked. It walks into one of the avenues of attack. Our Starslayer, undamaged, bases their lightly glistened Hatchetman. I leap our Highlander behind a building and next to the east side, so I can flee next turn if needed. Our Shootist walks to their Cerberus. I move in some Elementals. I run our Apollo next to their Fireball. This thing isn’t over yet. They have a lot of heavy metal rocking the block, some untouched, like a Highlander, Devastator and the barely scratched Falconer and Axman. They know we are badly damaged, and are going to keep at it. Our benefit is that we took out the team with the more accurate mechs. I back up to give my folks firing lanes, and their Highlander bases our Starslayer. Our Lynx leaps next to their Hatchetman. Flashman runs to the rear of their Falconer. Their Devastator destroys the LA on our Shootist. Meanwhile, it’s AC20 destroys the RL of their Cerberus. Our Starslayer nails the engine once on their Hatchetman. Attacking through the rear, I go overheat ot blaze their mech, and our Flashman hits the engine three times in the LT and CT rears. Our Gallowglas destroys the LL on their Fireball. Their Cerberus takes out the LT on my Shootist. Their Highlander destroys the RA on my Zeus. Our Grand Crusader takes the gauss rifle on their Cerberus in the RA and destroys it, and the RT goes too. Dead mech . Falling? Hatchetman, Fireball. Our Starslayer kicks their Hatchetman’s CT and destroys it. That turn we killed a Cerberus and Falconer and Hatchetman and essentially took out the Fireball as well. They choose to fade. They have just three mechs left – Devastator, Axman, and Highlander |
Hatchetman H, LL, RL, LA, RA, LT, RT
Dervish LL, LA, H, RT Talon H, LA, RA, LL, RL, LT Cerberus, missing RL, RA, RT Fireball missing LL. Stalker missing RL, LT Orion missing LA, RT Crusader missing H Lynx missing H, LA, RL Griffin missing LT JagerMech III missing RT Falconer, enginex3 Dragonfire missing RT PXH 3D missing LT, LA Wolf Trap missing RT LL Guillotine – blacked out pilot Kills – Orion IIcx2, Flashman,x2 Phoenix Hawk, Highlander, Elemental #1, Grand Crusader, Starslayer. US – PXH missing RL, RT Highlander missing RT Shootist missing LA, LT Zeus missing RA Complete victory! Mad, pissed off, and with a knowledge of the city, the local defenders win on their flank, and the invading armies are powerfully repelled from Daosho. END OF SCENARIO 17 – For the Motherland! |
As the retreating forces that are loyal to both causes begin to leave the city, our victorious forces follow. Brusier and Sealion Companies each follow and peck at them, and blaze into their camp. Even though they have some infantry and armor there on guard, they don’t have enough forces to keep our two clean, healthy, clan heavy, and pristine companies from blowing them up.
They both agree, for safe passage, to leave Zurich, and not to return for the duration of the Civil War. END OF TRACK FOUR – BROTHER AGAINST BROTHER AGAINST BROTHER |
October 31, 3063 – As the two forces begin to collect their things and head out, Duke Essex arrives at a pirate point with the full navy, WarShip, flotilla, and more. Fighters, assault ships, and more unfurl, and ensure that the peace is kept. Ambassador Yee gets off the first landing, in her first action for the Coalition after being hired once the Liberty Campaign was over and House Steiner cut her loose in order to protect their assets and reputation.
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Salvage and Pay
The biggest thing to do, to wrap up the contract, is to figure out salvage and pay. We spend months fixing up armor, re-ammoing salvaged units, and replacing parts. By the time the contract is up, we have every salvaged unit in pristine shape. We have paid for this, but it will help our shared salvage considerably. Shared Salvage is simple. You total the value of all salvage. Then divide it 50/50. You get 50% of the value of the salvage in C-Bills. You get any salvage you want up to 50% value. Zurich needed to keep units on planet, so they couldn’t get rid of some salvage, but mercs never negotiate away salvage rights completely, it’s how they make their money. We are about to make…out. |
Units we salvaged:
Watchman Cerberus Victor Javelin BattleMaster Tarantula Caesar Locust Axman PXH Penetrator Nightsky Bandersnatch Jagermech Cicada 3G Griffin Falconer Wolf Trap Hatchetman Merlin Rifleman 5M T Bolt Commando Dart JagerMech III Berserker BattleMaster Stalker 5S Wasp Enforcer Rifleman 5M Stealth Garm Barghest Gunslinger Goliath Catapult C1b Bushwacker Dervish Wolverine Javelin Clint Cataphract Templar Archer Pillager Salamander Cicada Shadow Hawk Nightsky Longbow Maelstrom Cerberus Axman Griffin Firestarter Of Enfield Crusader 5M Centurion Thunder Hawk Berserker Penetrator Banshee Rakshasa Wolfhound Shadow Hawk 5D Commando Warhammer Marauder Nightstar Templar O Barghest Battle hawk Cerberus Fireball Stalker Orion Crusader Lynx Griffin JagerMech III Falconer Dragonfire PXH 3D Wolf Trap Warhammer 7S Rl, LL, LT, LA, RA< H Cestus H, LL, RL, RT, LT, LA Fireball, H, RT, RA, LL, RL Cobra RA, H, RT Garm H, RL, LA, RA Zeus RA, LA, LT, LL, H, RL, Cobra LA, H Hunchback H, LL, RL, RA, LA, LT Wolfhound H, LT, RT, LL, RL, LA, RA Commando, RA, LA, LT, RT, H,LL, RL Crusader LA, LL Fireball RT, LT, H, LL Hatchetman H, LL, RL, LA, RA, LT, RT Dervish LL, LA, H, RT Talon H, LA, RA, LL, RL, LT That’s a ton of crap! What’s the fiscal value of them? 1,068,929,142 for the mechs And roughly 50k for the limbs We make 559,464,571 in cash, and then we can take that amount in salvage |
I take all of the parts, as well as these 50 mechs:
Commandox2 5S Templar Ox2 Griffin 3M Battle Hawk Barghest Marauder 5D Pillager Goliath 3M Enfield Hatchetman Jagermech JM7-D Locust LCT-3D Nightskyx2 Phoenix Hawk 3Dx2 Shadow Hawk 5D Rifleman 5Mx2 Garm Crusader CRD-5S Lynx Clint CLNT-2-3U Firestarter Of Catapult C1b Cataphract 3D Salamander Gunslinger BattleMaster 3Sx2 Archer 5S Orion ON1-M Penetratorx2 Merlin Javelin 10Px2 T Bolt 9S Wasp 1S Watchman Wolfhound 2 Longbow Dart 4S Dervish DV-7D Warhammer 7S Victor VTR-9D Thunder Hawk Stalker 5S |
Now, a few other things. It cost us roughly 62.5 mill to fix up the salvage, and another 26 mill for ammo, armor, parts, upkeep, and repair of our stuff.
We get 18 mill back in upkeep and such back Now, for or salary, we make…. 15.56 million in salary and such, beyond our own salary So, we are in the hole 54,940,000 before we add in the salvage remittance 504,524,571 is our full cash made. Most of this will be spent in the naval campaign in a later battle. Check it out… END OF OPERATION: Flashpoint |
Nov 15, 3063 – In order to avoid these issues in the future, and with a bad taste in everyone’s mouth, and with the work Ambassador Yee has been doing, Zurich has officially applied to join the Celestial Coalition.
They join us! Zurich Planetary Defense – Led by General Trent Hasseldorf, they have the 35 mechs we didn’t take, many of which are pricey, big, but potent (such as the triple Cerberuses, Barghest, Stalker, Banshee, two Berserkers, Dragon Fire, Maelstrom, Nightstar, 2 JagerMech IIIs, 2 Axman, Bandersnatch), and around 49 mechs Trent already had from himself, the LeSatte forces salvaged crap, and local nobility. That puts them at 83 mechs and growing, and there’s around a regiment of infantry and a battalion of tanks for defending stuff. Regular, Reliable. End of the Zurich Campaign |
3063
January 4, 3063 – The St.Ives Compact/Capellan Confederation war is over, and the recalcitrant realm has been re-absorbed by the Confederation. January 7, 3063 – After the blatant attempt to divert attention from the unrest on Capolla works, things begin to calm down as people begin to discuss the details of our investment campaign. January 11, 3063 - On Genoa, after upgraded scanners are used, they find a large unknown bauxite deposit. They also uncover a long-hidden Star League supply cache. Instead of the cache containing huge amounts of military goods, it has a large amount of medical supplies, information, and more. This stuff is still top of the line, or slightly more. Some of it is broken and liquids have evaporated and such. But much of it is able o be salvaged and used. We use it to upgrade major hospitals across the Coalition. January 12, 3063 - After securing a variety of troops, we begin to get ready to dispatch a unit to clan space. It'll a taskforce, led by several K&C units. It's not a Coalition taskforce, just one of K&C's. January 17, 3063 – After working on them for a few years, Kressly announces they have figured out how to backtrack the Storm Inhibitor Satellites that will enable Bryant to shine again. The first ones will be made in a few months. We got one from Word of Blake. From the Star League era and we took it apart and sussed it out. We have just completed the working prototype. After building lines for it, KWI will be able to make around 50 a year. It will take several hundred to help bring Bryant back to livability (about 350) outside of the polar regions, and then perhaps 20-30 years for that to take effect with enough impact to change the climate over the whole planet. But it’s the start. We will position the first satellites over the region that includes HartfordCo Industries, an old mech/tank factory that was never destroyed, just closed down. (Check out the Von Luckner description in TRO 3039 for proof of that, btw) |
February 12, 3063 – We get a call from the Carver V contacts. They would like us to send mercenary help to hunt down some bandits. We agree to do just that.
(SEE THE CARVER V CAMPAIGN HERE - MechCommander 2 Dynasty! - Done! - Front Office Football Central ) “Hello again Braham. I see your Duke-dom has really done well by you. Your nation is in a much-better place than it was when we last had this little chat here on Terra.” “I know, and you know why I’m here. We both have something the other wants, and we are both happy to have it. ComStar has been too focused on the clans, and now on the Civil War. It’s time to dial you in, as long as you come with the expected benefits.” “Of course, our battle plans, and the acquired Liao invasion plan are suitable for your needs.” “That’s true Blaine. That’s true. But the Coalition has a lot more worlds now. You are getting more from our deal now. Much more than you were when you agreed to it. So, I’m think we should get just a little more. I don’t think you’ll be upset. “ “Let hear you increased requests then Essex.” “Just a few things. One, we aren’t able to secure a shipyards. I want Blake assistance for later for restoring or refurbishing anything we come across. Meanwhile, I want access to buy black water navy vessels for the Coalition – transport assets like DropShips and JumpShips that you are building lots of. That’s the first, and that’s very reasonable I think. You open up more markets for Blake goods and you will also increase our reliance on you as well. That cannot be a bad result for you.” “Granted” “And the second? I want to bring in every single unaffiliated system in the March. I want to bring in Hall and Keid, right now. I’d like your help, and after we are done, you get what we’ve agreed to, naturally expanded you them as well as the other places we take.” “Granted. But we want something from you.” “What would that be?” “A second to get us into the Star League. No one can ever rely on House Liao to do those sorts of things. Get is onto the Star league, and this is set.” “For that, I’ll want a few more things. Let me get you a list, hold on….” “Really Essex? That doesn’t seem like your style at all.” “Are you in?” “We are. You get us a vote into the League, you get us the obvious, and we will get you help with Hall, Keid, and this ambitious target as well as help with your industrial problems. “ “Done” |
March 1, 3063 – As this increasingly long-game war begins, both sides begin to build supply lines, infrastructure and more. The Lyran Alliance begins to nationalize civilian JumpShips and DropShips in order to secure their lines of equipping, reinforcing, and responding are kept open.
Numerous flashpoints in both areas, Thorin, Ft. Loudon, Coventry, Odessa, Addicks, and more flare up. But this is about trying to find allies and support for units and each side. Remember, most planets are fighting their battles on their own. Neither Victor nor Katrina declared war on the local unit. Zurich has begun to send feelers out to us. On Nanking, over the next few weeks the SMM finally broke out of their position and one final battle is held in the Huai River Valley. March 28, 3063 – The SMM on Nanking surrenders. This leaves on planet the First RCT and the Grenadiers, who have been embattled, and are fiercely pro-Victor. But, the world still doesn’t like them here, and the locals are increasingly displeased..…. Apr 5, 3063 – The Duke Sandoval’s forces hit a 5th Combine world, Matsuida. |
Beginning of the Arboris Campaign
Arboris kicked everyone off their planet and left behind 9 regiments of farmers-turned-infantry. The world had pro-Liao and pro-FedCom units with mechs and vees, and the locals kicked them both off. In the last few years of going it alone, Arboris has been subjected to raids and such. (In real life, Arboris will choose to join the Blake Protectorate voluntarily without a shot being fired. We’ll make it a little harder than that). Arboris has one of the most anti-Great House streaks in the entire area. As the number of independent worlds in the Chaos March has steadily dwindled, there have been fewer and fewer places for bandits and pirates to use as a base for raiding. It was originally places like Bryant, Fletcher, Acamar, as well as many others. As we’ve captured some worlds, we’ve forced the bandits into smaller and smaller options. Some worlds that were recently free, such as Keid and New Home, are horrible choices for bandits due to the previous presence of Lyran Guard. Caph was too small (and too far away) so Carver V/Liberty and Arboris were used as homeworlds. So it’s time to take Arboris. The locals are a lot more willing to treat with us than with a Great House. Chief Ingrid Foster believes we have between four and five pirate groups using Arboris as a foundation for raids against nearby worlds. Our goal is to arrive in the Arboris system, either destroy or drive out those five groups, and then assist the government of Arboris as needed to regain supplies and control of some regions of the planet. Roughly 50% of Arboris is three major continents, so there is a lot of place for hiding. We don’t expect massive numbers of resistance. Metal Battalion from Epsilon Regiment should be enough mech-age. We also send some major naval and aerospace assets, in case we come across DropShips and JumpShips in space. In order to help win the battle, we have the Vengeance with its 40 fighters, all of our assault DropShips, and some of our JumpShips to help us out, led by our WarShip. This small stuff is fine. |
4 April, 3063 – Our forces arrive in the Arboris system and we take a look around. Because there is a recharge station at the Zenith point, that’s where we arrive. There are a pair of JumpShip here, one by the Zenith Jump Point, and another at the Nadir. There are several DropShips making their way from Arboris to the JumpShip. It appears some are commercial types like a Mule, Monarch and a Buccaneer. But there are also two military DropShips – Leopard (not the CV version with fighters) and the Gazelle (which usually has tanks).
We radio them all while interdicting our WarShip, the DropShips, and fighter screens to the Nadir point while leaving behind forces here at the Zenith one. All five DropShips are far too gone on their burn to turn back. The WarShip can go faster and with its four DropRings, it can set up a perfect speedbump. We contact the five DropShips, and radio the Jumps. One of the JumpShips claims to be a passenger Merchant Vessel, here at the Zenith Point, and its registry checks out. It claims to be waiting for the Buc and the passenger DropShip called a Monarch to jump out. Those ships also radio their merchant registries, and they check out, so we don’t even stop them. The other JumpShip, an Invader class one, at the Nadir point, with three rings for the three DropShips launching for it leaves before we can confront it – it must have already charged its battery. That leaves these three DropShips burning for a large WarShip and fleet. There’s no even an assault DropShip in the mix, these are smaller ones. Captain Randall Lewis orders them to stop and be boarded. There’s no chance of survival, so they agree to do so. All three ships are pirate vessels, which we take. They are a Gazelle, Leopard, and Mule. The Mule was mostly empty, it was to be used to carry the goods they raided, with only a few things in the cargo. The Leopard carries 4 Mechs and 2 fighters. All six are in the stable. We have 15 tanks in the Gazelle, mostly faster ones. They were jumping out to hit a trio of lightly defended nearby worlds and then come back. We set aside their captured forces for now, and tell them that we will not arrest them, but set them free, without their equipment, with their lives. It s a better deal than if they had attacked us. The first pirate band is down. Three or four left. |
April 9, 3053 – A few days later our WarShip and its escort arrive around Arboris and begin to blockade the world. Any DropShip that wants to land or leave, will be inspected by us for bandits. We’ve spoken with the leaders of the planet, and we trying to keep any pirate reinforcements from hitting the world. No one is going to challenge a WarShip.
This should help us out too, because if there are any pirate naval assets on the planet, they can’t get off. We can capture them. DropShips arrive and land Metal battalion in three different locations near-ish, suspecting bandits. We only know where one of the local HQs are, so Gold Company is landing right by it in order to smash the pirates. The others we don’t know precisely their location. The first company, according to intel gathered by the Chief Foster’s Apollo Office. Here is Gold Company: AS7-8K-UK Atlas HBK-5M Hunchback TDR-7M Thunderbolt PTR-6M Penetrator TDK-7Y Thunder Hawk SHD-5m Shadow Hawk GOL-3M Goliath RFL-5M Rifleman JR7-M Jenner CLNT-2-3U Clint VL-5T Vulcan PXH-3D Phoenix Hawk |
Now our intel has our foes with around 7 or 8 mechs and some Vees.
However, it seems like they have fewer mechs than expected (around a lance - 4, mechs). But they have more vees to face. Our foes are all level 1 techs foes: Stinger Dragon Scorpion Charger All faster units We have at least two VTOLs in the air that were not a part of the intel, plus around a company of tanks. Ummm….13 tanks actually. 13 tanks, 2 VTOLs, and the lance of mechs. This is our Thunder Hawk. It’s a 100 ton nasty newer Mech that features THREE gauss rifles and 2 medium pulse lasers. It has a weaker XL Engine but plenty of armor.  We land just outside of their modified HQ and they move out to strike us! They have a mish mash of expertise. All of their tanks are hover tanks. This gives them a ton of speed and fast hitting capabilities, added to the speed of their other Mechs and VTOLs. Speed keeps one away from getting caught and getting away with more product. Our Battle Value is almost double theirs – this should be a cake walk. But some of our biggest losses have been in overwhelming odds. |
There are just a few, small areas of gentle elevation, with dirt and grass. No trees, bushes, or water.
Turn 1 – We lose init. I create two prongs of attack, one led by the Atlas, Hunchback and Rifleman on the right and the other the Goliath, Thunderbolt and Thunder Hawk on the left. They move out and rush their Peregrine Attack VTOLs as well. I take some shots at a Peregrine – we have a hard chance to hit, but if we do….. Our T Bolt immobilizes a Pegasus. Our Goliath immobilizes a Gladius and our Jenner a Blizzard. Our Atlas cascades an LRM 20 and all 20 missiles hit one of their Gladius and it is destroyed. Our Atlas’s medium laser crawls into a Peregrine and destroys its rotor and it crashes into the ground. Turn 2 – We lose init again. Our Vulcan bases their Blizzard. I move up close range mechs like Hunchback and Thunderbolt. I don’t even move longer range ones like our Rifleman and Goliath. Our Clint bases, and stands above, their Charger. I try to converge a few mechs around their Charger. That’s the only threat I seriously fear over there. Our PXH bases the Charger as well. They base my Atlas with their Dragon. Their Peregrine flies behind my Rifleman so I flip its arms. Our Hunch’s AC20 nails the Dragon right in the LT. Hits a laser there. A Pegasus gets a through-armor-crit on the Thunder Hawk and nails two leg actuators. Annoying. The Atlas blows off the LL on their Charger with his SRM6. Our Vulcan destroys the Blizzard. Their Thunder Hawk’s medium pulse laser drills into their Pegaus sand hits the fuel and it explodes. Their Charger falls, as does our T Hawk. Our Atlas kicks and doles out 20 damage to their Dragon, who falls. Turn 3 – We lose init. Their Pegasus bases our Shadow Hawk. I don’t move or stand the T Hawk. It’s taken little damage and likely to get ganged up on for a turn or two, absorbed damage from the others. Our T Bolt stands on their damaged Drillson. A few more folks base tanks and vice versa. Our Penetrator and Clint base their Scorpion mech. Their Dragon fails to rise twice. Our Rifleman nails their Peregrine’s RS and it falls to the ground and crashes dead. Our T Hawk immobilizes a Maxim, while our Penetrator nails a pair of leg actuators on their Scorpion’s Rear Right Leg. Their Peregrine hits the legs on my Rifleman and nails a hip actuator. A Pegasus hits our Shadow Hawk with three SRMS6s, for 6, 4, and 6 missiles each, and nails the H twice. Their Harasser Missile Platform gets a through armor critical on our Thunder Hawk, nails the gauss in the LT, and we had auto eject on. The section is not destroyed (there is 1 damage left on the internal structure) but with autopilot on, we eject and the mech is down. Our Shadow Hawk, Rifleman fall, as does their Scorpion Our Penetrator kicks, and kits the SRM6 ammo in their Scorpion mech and it explodes! Our Jenner kicks and destroys the ammo in a Maxim and it explodes too! The Atlas kicks and destroys the LL and LT of their Dragon Because of their speed, they begin to collect themselves to fly out. We get one more turn of smashing. Turn 4 – We lose init again. I eject our Rifleman. Our Shadow Hawk rises and runs. Thunderbolt next to their Stinger and a Maxim. Vulcan next to a Pegasus. Our Jenner destroys the Center Torso )Rear) of their Stinger. Dead mech. A few other sections are destroyed as well. Our Shadow Hawk immobilizes a Harasser #1 while our Goliath freezes another Harasser #2. Our Phoenix Hawk follows that with a ER Large Laser that destroys the #1 Harasser. Gauss slug fires at a Drillson and immobilizes it as well. They go critical on our Clint in a few places. No one falls. Our Vulcan kicks and destroys the right side of a Pegasus. And with that their still capable tanks fade into the night. They have escaping a pair of Condor Heavy Tanks, a Gladius, a Drillson , and a Maxim. Not exactly a powerful combination. We don’t find any transport vessels here, or nearby. No idea if these bandits attacked other systems or just locally. But they are basically down. Dragon, missing LL, LT Charger, reattach LL Scorpion, RLL, FLL, H Stinger H, L, RL, RT, RA Dead Tanks – Gladius, Peregrinex2, Blizzard, Pegasus (fuel), normal Peg, Maxim (fuel), Harasser Kills – Atlasx2, Vulcanx2, Thunder Hawk, Rifleman, Penetrator, Jennerx2, Phoenix Hawk Good stuff! |
Two groups are down.
Our other two companies, Bronze and Titanium begin to spread out and search for bandits Apr 12, 3063 – A pair of JumpShips arrive in system today one at a Pirate point, and the other at the Zenith point. Apr 14, 3063 – Whoa! All of the sudden multiple trails can be seen from a variety of places around the world. It looks like a bunch of bandits and pirates have coordinated and trying to run the WarShip gauntlet. We launch some fighters. We’ll obviously go for the best looking DropShip first – none of these assets are assault – they are all transport machines. The best is an upgraded Union DropShip, which, if full, would have 12 mech and their storage. After a few hours, we get their Union to hold up and board it. Nothing inside but a skeleton crew. Crap. We are able to scramble fighters to intercept another, it’s a Leopard CV. It launches 6 fighters to delay our squadron of 20 fighters, and the fighters carve through theirs and reach their DropShip and secure it. But about 5 DropShips ran the gauntlet and made it out. Crap. |
July 19, 3063 – We have spent three months scouring Arboris unsuccessfully, it seems all pirates have left. The “blockade” ends. We boarded around 3 DroShips a week that were passenger or cargo ships.
July 25, 3063 - Our army jumps out, and takes Metal Battalion. We’re jumping in Star Battalion from Alpha Regiment to garrison the place. Arboris joins the Celestial Coalition. Arboris has two smaller continents, each roughly the size of Australia. Those have some light mining and timber and other wood based industries (including a large cork plantation). Meanwhile, the other continent is about 40% of the surface area, and has sprawling agriculture. A local Arboris variant of wheat grows here, and before the harvest, its bigger than a BattleMech. A large number of agricultural mechs work the trade out here. The ground in Arboris is very healthy, even today, and is another large exporter of food. This gives us another bread-basket world (this time literally). Our major gains here were not mech and tank, but transport assets. Having a WarShip and interdicting a planet is a huge asset. Running the gauntlet was smart, because they avoided losing on Arboris (these are bandits, not soldiers – there is no value in running a guerilla campaign or staying on Arboris when you are being ousted). We almost got the JumpShip at the pirate point. Captain Randall Lewis calculated that it would take his WarShip about 7 hours longer to get there after it had recharged and added on the DropShips. No sense heading out and losing your blockade of Arboris. |
Our gains were:
15 tanks in the upgraded Gazelle 4 mechs, 2 fighters in the Leopard Empty Mule Empty Upgraded Union Empty Upgraded Leopard CV And then the Charger, Dragon and another 8 tanks from the locals. We create the 1st Arboris Avengers. We give them the 23 tanks, 6 mechs and 5 fighters we captured. Of the nine farmer-infantry regiments, most dissolve, now that we have 36 mechs of our own, and the growing Arboris Avengers But one battalion of infantry enjoyed their time and stay with the Avengers. Now, we aren’t interested in the Leopard. It just delivers a lance of mechs – our needs are beyond that. The Leopards are worth 400 million-ish. That’s about how much a Tramp JumpShip is worth. (475-ish million) Mule is 160 mill, Gazelle, upgraded is 212 mill, and the Union, upgraded, is 290 mill Remember, I decided to use better numbers for these assets. The original 3057 has DropShips a lot cheaper, but that does not reflect their value, and they were changed in later publications. For example, take the 100 ton mech, the Berserker. This Inner Sphere mech costs 32.2 million. Now, according to the first edition of 3057, an upgraded Fury DropShip is worth 32.5 million . Basically the same price. The Fury is 1850 tons and can carry 8 tanks and 4 infantry platoons. Does that sound like they should be the same price? That’s why the changes were made to costs and such. (Meanwhile, JumpShip costs were reduced in some places. The Tramp dropped hundreds of millions, for example). So we captured, roughly, 1 billion worth of AeroSpace assets. End of the Arboris Campaign |
June 3, 3063 – There is a quick raid on Epsilon Indi that is stopped by local forces. Fleeing bandits from Arboris perhaps?
June 10, 3063 – The CEO of Vicore Industries has been pushing for the Project Phoenix program. Older Star league designs are not selling that well, even with the early refits coming their way in 3048 or 3052. They aren’t selling well. So Vicore has been leading some projects to refurbish these ‘Mechs, but with a slightly redesigned chassis as well as the latest technology to push them to the forefront of the market. Not all Phoenix designs are coming from Vicore. A few are coming from specific militaries and such. But many are. Representatives of Lang and Vicore meet today in Caph to look over their factory and how they could renovate the Shadow Hawk design. Vicore takes some details and leaves. Aug 2, 3063 - We put in a quick call, but no more Tramps are available on the market right now from Andurien. Ah well. That happens. Instead, we sell both of the Leopards for 350 million (less than market value for ships not coming off the lines – I usually reduce our sales considerably). We send out contacts to see what DropShips might be available for purchase that better meet our needs… As per our agreement with Word of Blake, we can purchase transport vessels from them, straight off the presses. But instead we purchase, for 325 mill, on outdated Overlord off the market. That’ll be our latest addition to the fleet. We also have the Mule, Gazelle, and upgraded Union. So we’ve added transport for 48 mechs, 15 tanks, and supplies. |
September 1, 3063 – We have negotiated to gain the blueprints for the original Oppenheimer Hazardous Material Recovery Vehicle from Word of Blake. We send it on to Caph to help them reboot their lines. We expect the first Oppies to roll off the lines in April or May of next year, and there should be a huge market for it. They’ll be making around 100 a year at first, to fill the void. This is a machine that is very much needed, but hasn’t been built since 2801. That was 262 years ago, way too much time.
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The next campaign of Chapter 8 will be run quasi-independently, and we'll not come back until it's over, years from now....
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The Clan Campaign
September 19, 3063 - One of the benefits of combining our mercenary group with the multi-nation Celestial Coalition is that the state supports the mercenary unit financially. There has not been as many needs to take contracts and such. However, we have brought two planets into the Coalition – Liberty/Carver V and Zurich, after taking contracts with the local planets and then having them choose to join us. But we are still a mercenary unit, and the value of that is that we can send the mercs outside of the borders of the nation without it looking like a state-sponsored raid. We have decided to pack up a large unit and send it to clan space, in order to run some Trials and such. We could hit Ghost Bear, Wolf, or Jade Falcon. We could be at any of the three places in four months time or less, and begin raids, or Trials, as we want. It’s important to take a shot at our foes, to reinvest in grabbing clan-tech and such. We can do this in order to push again at the great clan threat, and hit them. Perhaps we can find some contracts along the clan front as well, which would be nice. Actually, the major place for getting anti-clan contracts is Arc-Royal, currently home of Clan Wolf-in-Exile and the Kell Hounds, and the center of the Arc-Royal Defense Cordon. We could swing by Arc-Royal, and thence to hit the Falcon. It’d take longer, but give us the chance to increase our financial situation. |
So, in order to head out, we are taking:
Our two Tramp JumpShips Profit of Guns, Gazelle DropShip – 15 tanks Serendipitous Victory, Union-C DropShip – 12 mechs Charon’s Message, Union DropShip – 12 mechs Star River, Union DropShip – 12 mechs Jakob’s Ladder, Buccaneer DropShip – Storage Amalgamated Bliss, Union DropShip – Empty We are taking with us: Liberty Battalion, the 36 mechs we took from Liberty, the fighters that fought there, and the handful of additional recruits we brought in. And 15 tanks of support for us, that can hold, attack, garrison landing zones and such, A handful of infantry squads, with a few small craft in some of the Ships helping out. The empty Union and Buccaneer to fill with stuff we capture and one final surprise…. We have reached out and contracted… Hell’s Black Aces. We have hired They are sending Lucifer’s Deck, a Titan class DropShip they captured from Jade Falcon in 3055, in the action that also captured a WarShip. They have also loaned a pair of escorts for it from the Capellan Confederation in order to keep it intact. We have rented a full wing of Aces fighters 18, for this mission. The Aces are doing a nice contract for the CC, because the CC wants to bring them back into the fold permanently. They can buy all of the best Confederation made fighters, they have the ability to rent one of their wings to other folks that are interested, and they get a lot of other benefits. The CC wants to protect their Titan and fighters, and to prove themselves a nice place to call home to the Aces (who were formed after leaving the Confederation). The Aces are elite pilots, with 18 upgraded and high tech fighters. The Titan has been upgraded by the clans to hold 30 fighters, so they have plenty of space as well. An Invader-class JumpShip has the three vessels. We have the aces for a 1 year contract. They are finishing a deal in Lyran space right now, and we’ll meet them in Arc-Royal in three months time. We have them on a retainer contract. Leading our mission will be Magnus. Magnus was the very first clan bondsman we took on the planet of Thule from clan Ghost Bear. He was our teacher on all-things clan. Here we go…. |
January 10, 3064 – We arrive at Arc-Royal and Magnus meets with the Black Aces. We have hired them before to help provide fighter coverage. Doing so again makes perfect sense in this situation.
The Aces took a contract against Jade Falcon with the Blue Star Irregulars that won them a lot of pride, and the battle as well. They haven’t done any anti-clan contracts since, and they are chomping at the bit to do so again, so our offer was met with warmly, and that’s why they took a deal with us, rather than other folks that were offering more Civil War crap they don’t want to keep fighting. Magnus heads up and meets with some local representatives of the mercenary groups hiring here on Arc-Royal. The Aces contract officially begins today, and ends January 10, 3065. January 21, 3064 – We find out that there are no major contracts that are on the table right now, Wolf—in-Exile and the Kell Hounds are fine. There’s been no major movements on the clan front, although they suspect a Falcon incursion into Lyran space could happen due to the Civil War, they are doing some refitting, and getting things ready, just in case. So we head on out to make out own contract, if you will, but provide the locals with contact information of where we plan to be, in case things change. We’ll be using Dustball as a base of operations for now. |
March 11, 3064 – We arrive at the Dustball System, on the Clan border, and begin recharging.
March 18, 3064 – We jump out and arrive at the… Blair Atholl system The 9th Provisional Garrison Cluster is here. Magnus contacts the local commander and they agree to safcon to the planet (safe conduct down, without threat of being attacked, in order to do a Trial for something). The 9th is a regular unit of the Falcon’s Mu Galaxy. It has five binaries, or 50 mechs. Magnus meets with Star Colonel Kabir and they begin to discuss the Trial. Magnus would like one star of mechs from the 9th, fully furnished. Kabir agrees, and asks for nothing in return. But he wants to use many of his forces. The Falcons have gotten tired of just holding onto worlds, they are fighters, so if we have a large battle, that will help get his men involved. After a long negotiation, we agree to the following: 1). We will be fighting tomorrow, on a local plains they use for training, it’s not near anything and nothing will be damaged by the battle 2). We are now fighting for both a star of mechs (5) and a pair of aerospace fighters, and a point of elemental armor, with the 5 elementals as bondsmen. 3). We will be using our best unit, the command company of Liberty Battalion, with our best pilots out there. 4). They will be using a full three stars of mechs against us. They have seen our unit’s history, and they know we usually win 12 on 10 matchups against the clans. Plus, they are a regular garrison cluster (regular by clan standards is vet by Inner Sphere ones). |
March 24, 3064 –
Command Company: Atlas Blood Asp B (gauss, 2x LRM 20, 4x Medium pulses) (Steel) Highlander (Ghost) Starslayer (Dagger) Hunchback Shadow Cat Prime (Gauss and some lasers) Uller A (Gauss and some lasers) Vulture Prime (Longshot) Wolfhound Lao Hu Catapult Bushwacker The ones without names are either vets or regulars from the campaign. We have a green pilot in the Wolfhound. Next up are the 15 garrison mechs we are facing, very few omnimenchs here (just four). Most are things like IIc variant so finer sphere mechs or Omnis: Cougar D (ultra AC10, ER large laser, 2x SRM4) Thor A Loki Prime Black Lanner Prime Others: 2x Vixen 2x Hellhound Rifleman IIc Griffin IIc Locust IIc 2x Phoenix Hawk IIc Kraken Spirit Note that the PXH IIC is an 80 ton assault mech with a pair of Ultra ac10s.  Remember, the clans tend to fight a lot longer. Although that is not always the case in smaller Trials. |
There are some small glimpses of trees here and there, including a section in the southwest that I move toward.
Turn 1 – we lose initi. They run a few mechs right at us – A PXH IIC, Spirit and a Cougar D. Their Vixen rushes and bases our Highlander. A Black Lanner bases our Atlas. Many of our shots are those of opportunity. We begin by tacking that Cougar a few times. Our Blood Asp destroys the LA of their Black Lanner. Our Bushwacker nails the gyro once on their Cougar. It falls from damage, our Atlas took 60+ and is standing, and our Highlander took 40+ and is as well. Turn 2 – We win initiative this time. I race our Wolfhound up by some trees to the northwest. The other PXH IIc and Thor are charging our position. They want to end this now. Our Starslayer jumps next to, and to the left side, of their PXH IIc #2. A Hellhound bases our SS. Their Cougar rises, runs, and falls again. The Vixen that based our Highlander now does so to our Uller. They back away the damaged Black Lanner. I run the Lao Hu over to base the Vixen. Our Starslayer goes internal in three places on their Locust IIc and nails the hip actuators. Then our Vulture destroys the RA on their Locust IIc and blows off the limb. Ready for this one? Our Hunchback’s AC20 hits their Thor’s Gauss rifle, destroys the LA (explosion of rifle) the pilot blacks out from the feedback. Nice shot! Meanwhile our Atlas blows off the Thor’s LL. Our Blood Asp finishes the Thor by destroys its LT, and hitting the engine once on the CT for a engine shut down. Meanwhile, a PXH IIc nails the Uller twice with aAC10 shots, and hits the LL actuators twice. After taking 40, our Blood Asp falls, as does the Uller, and their Locust IIc. I am surprised that the Starslayer was not dropped more forcefully, it only took 40+ damage. Our Lao Hu kicks and hits the LL actuator on their Vixen’s LL. But it doesn’t fall. Not a bad round, with the Thor down. That have damaged Locust IIc, Black Lanner, and Cougar. Turn 3 – We win init. I hop the Starslayer into some heavy woods on the ear east of the map. I want to draw away some attention. We rise the Blood Asp. After failing once, the Cougar rises to get away from the nearby Starslayer. Our Uller rises and flees from the battle, and according to the clan rules, that removes it from battle. It’s better than ejecting. Their Hellhound bases our Catapult. Our Vulture chases their wounded Black Lanner, I want to take it down if possible. A PXH IIc keeps coming in our face. I back up our Lao Hu against this annoying Vixen again. Their other Hellhound almost bases our Blood Asp – its two away. Our Vulture destroys the RA of their Black Lanner. Our Atlas the RT of their Locust IIc. Our Starslayer nails the RT of their Cougar and destroys it, then hits the engincex2 on the CT, engine shut down. Their Vixen nails the gyro once of our Hunchback on a through armor critical and it falls. Their Hellhound #2 took 60+ and fell. Our Lao Hu kicks and destroys the RL of their Vixen. They set the woods on fire my Blood Asp was stranding in. Turn 4 – I lose init. I stand the wounded Hunchback and that’s it. I‘ll use it as a target of sacrifice this turn. Damaged badly, the Black Lanner does a suicidal rush as the Blood Asp fueled by its MASC. It fails to stand once, but their Hellhound rises and runs a bit. Their Vixen can’t do anything. I reposition our Bushwacker next to the Blood Asp for support. Their Spirit runs behind our forces to get a line on the Hunchback probably. I hop the Starslayer out. Their Loki takes some heavy woods in the far northwest. A gauss from our Shadow Cat cracks open their Hellhound #2, (the injured one). Our Blood Asp just tears into the wounded Black Lanner – destroys the RT, LT, and LL. Dead mech. Accurate fire from their Rifleman IIc pierces the Hunchback and nails the hip on its LL. Their Spirit follows suit and destroys it’s RL. Our Highlander opens up their unwounded Hellhound that ruches us, destroys its RA with a few hits in the arm led by its gauss, finished by its SRM missiles. Our Starslayer destroys the LA of their Locust IIc. Our Catapult just blasts the Hellhound #2 with two flights of Artemis equipped missiles and hits the CT once for an engine hit, a large pulse laser, the RT destroys as well (no shut down, no XL engine). LB 20X on our Lao Hu hits the downed Vixen and hits with all 20 shots. They smash it a bunch and destroy three pieces, and the mech’s CT, taking it down. Even though t took 40 more, our Blood Asp is still standing, as our their Hellhounds and Spirit. Only our Hunchback falls. The pilot blacks out. SUCK! Turn 5 – We lose init. I back the Blood Asp one space. It’s lost more than half of its external armor, so I want to protect it a bit now. Their Loki remains in the heavy woods. Their Spirit bases the Hunchback. Our Wolfhound destroys the LT of their Spirit. A gauss slug slides into their other Vixen and destroys it’s a and then LRM fire its RT. Their PXH IIc #2’s Ultra AC10 smashes our Bushwacker’s H and goes internal, but does not hit anything. Our Bushwacker follows with a LA blown off the Hellhound #2. Pulse lasers from the Vulture carve into their Sprit and destroy the RA> Their Kraken’s ultra AC2 collapse into the Bushwacker, and one hits its head and destroys it. Meanwhile their Spirit hits and destroys the CT of our Hunchback. Our Catapult fires LRMs into their Hellhound #2 and hits a bunch, and then follows with a medium laser to the downed Locust, and destroys the CT. Dead mech. Gauss slug from the Shadow Cat nails the Hellhound #2 CT and destroys it, dead mech. Their Spirit and Hellhound fall. That turn we lose two medium mechs (Hunchback, Bushwacker). They lost a Hellhound that was already wounded badly, Mech count? They have untouched PXH IIcs, Loki Kraken and Rifleman IIc all rocking the block. They also have an untouched Griffin IIC, and a wounded Vixen, Hellhound and Spirit. 9 mechs left. We have lost an Uller, Hunchback and Bushwacker. We have lost a lot of armor in the Starslayer, Catapult, Atlas, Highlander, and Blood Asp. We have, untouched, Lao Hu, Shadow Cat, Vulture. 9 mechs too, but ours have armor and such that are problems. Plus, the mechs we’ve killed have predominantly been lighter stuff. Lots of smoke by our position too. Turn 6 – I win init. Their Spirit fails to stand, tumbles, and blacks out. I run the Wolfhound next to it. Their Hellhound at least stands and runs five. They are creating a large sniping spot north of us. A PXH IIc is by the Loki, and their move the Kraken nearby as well. They are trying to turn it into a rally point. Their run the damaged Vixen into some light trees in the back on that side as well. I move our Lao Hu forward to give it some time to get attacks. I begin to focus fire on the PXH IIC. I also have some nice lines of fire on the Rifleman IIc from a few of my mechs instead. After a turn of light fire exchange, their, Rifleman IIc, taking 40+, falls. We had two mechs take 20+ and do nothing (Highlander, Atlas). It was more a turn of positioning. Our Wolfhound kicks the Spirit (after missing with ll of its lasers) and this a gyro once on it. The Spirit does not wake up though. Turn 7 – We win again. Their RFL IIC is up and running. I leave the Wolfhound by their mech. Our Catapult runs out and bases their wounded Hellhound. It’s below a copse of trees on the east flank, and no one has a good angle of attack down there anymore. I run the S Cat behind it. I leap our Highlander into some abandoned heavy woods the Catapult was in. All of their mechs are in the northwest, or getting there, save for the Hellhound. This turn we focus fire on the slower moving RLF IIc. Our Shadow Cat destroys the LL of that Hellhound. The Wolfhound destroys the CT of their Spirit. Our Blood Asp hits the H once of their RLF IIc with missiles, and then destroys that RA. Meanwhile our Lao Hu smashes the Pxh IIC #2 with its LB20X and hits with 12 pellet. Once is a through-armor crit that nails the AC10 ammo on their mech. Destroyed the RT completely in the explosion, and the pilot blacks out. Then our Highlander finishes the Rifleman IIc with a gauss to the h. Their Loki devastates our Wolfhound and destroys its RA. Their Hellhound and blacked out PXH fall hard. No one else falls. Shadow Cat kicks and destroys the LA of their Hellhound while our Catapult adds a kick to its LT, hits its ammo, it explodes ,and the pilot also blacks out. Now things look a lot differently. We took out an assault mech (PXH) and heavy (RFL) and have essentially finished the Hellhound in the last two turns. Meanwhile, they have just damaged a Wolfhound. They have two immobilized mechs and a wounded Vixen. That leaves them four mechs to rally against our nine. That’s not good math. Now, they are heavier units. We offer them hegira, and they accept. We have defeated Jade Falcon. |
PXH IIc #2, missing RT, blacked out pilot
Hellhound missing RT, LL, LT, engine, LA, blacked out pilot. Hellhound LA, H, RT, LL, RL Black Lanner missing LA, RA, LL, RT, LT Vixen H, LL, LA, RT Vixen missing RT, RA Spirit missing LA, LL, RL, H, RT Locust IIc, H, RA, RL, Thor missing RA, RT, blacked out pilot; reattach LL Cougar, hit gyro, missing RT, enginex2 Rifleman IIc missing RA, H Us – Hunchback, H, LL, RT, RT, RA, LA Buchwacker, missing H, dead pilot. Wolfhound missing RA Kills – Blood Aspx2, Starslayer, Lao Hu, Catapult, Shadow Cat, Wolfhound, Highlander, |
Now, it’ll take us a while to get things fixed up and such on the world.
They offer us our choice of mechs from the Garrison, as long as we don’t choose any omnis. That’s fair, and we take: Kraken Phoenix Hawk IIc Griffin IIc Vixen Viper Two light OmniFighters: 2x Vandal And some elementals: 1 squad, clan regular Elementals That gives us some nice replacements for the Hunchback, Bushwacker, and so forth. We add the mechs to the empty Union, and the fighters to the Hell’s Titan. We stay on world for roughly 3 weeks, repairing, and refitting. We have a bunch of minor Trials of Possession for things like refits, extra ammo, armor, getting a tech to help out, and so forth, and they are minor, small numbers and such, often unaugmented (in a circle of equals, without any weapons). It’s a lot of fun, and Falcon is clearly enjoying having someone else to do this stuff with. Because we won the battle, we get the salvaged mechs – PXH 2C, Hellhound, Cougar, RFL IIc, Loki. They keep the parts of the mechs we destroyed (Hellhound, Vixen, Spirit, etc). We don’t have the facilities or the techs for those we salvaged, so we just store them in the Buccaneer, since we won’t be able to use them for a while. But we do take the three blacked out pilots as bondsmen. |
April 30 3064 - We jump from Blair Atholl.
May 5, 3064 – We land at Dustball and begin to unload. On planet are just some wing of fighters from the local defenses, two armor regiments, and some militia mechs (around 12 or so). Not that much to stand against a strong attack from the clan. But it’s fine for normal garrison work I suppose. We only expect to be on planet for a couple of weeks, finish repairs and such, and then we’ll head back to clan space. We have swapped the five captured clan mechs for 5 mechs in the battalion, pending the end of the campaign. May 17, 3064 – We get word that a planet right next door to us, Koniz, about 15 light years away, has just had a large Jade Falcon flotilla arrive in system to push the local defending force, some mercenaries. (Barber’s Marauder IIs). The Falcons look like they have come with an invasion force, not just some raids or somesuch. |
May 22, 3064 – Magnus is contacted by the Arc-Royal Defense Cordon. Apparently the Falcons have attacked three separate worlds all at once, and multiple movements across the border have been reported. We suspect a strong Falcon incursion.
They offer us an emergency contract to garrison Dustball for three months. Magnuson forces them to make two concessions – firstly, we have removed the emergency extension clause they normally have. We’re willing to sign for more, but right now, we want to keep this short. Secondly, he forces them to put us in charge of all of the local defenses. Ultimately, they agree to it. Starting today, we have a three month garrison deal here at Dustball. We begin to meet the locals, and prepare a battlefield. We spend the time inspecting, doing training together, and working around the clock. May 29, 3064 – Just a few days later, a large Falcon flotilla arrives in the system. Magnus gets on the vidcom and speaks with them. We grant them safcon to Dustball. Meanwhile we offer them the full schematics and readout of our various forces, including the locals. They are happily surprised to discover that Magnus is here defending the world. They heard about his raid on nearby Blair Atholl and they are very happy to have the chance to face him in a real battle. He points out that his unit has never violated the batchall process and bidding process from mining a field to pretending a unit is green, not veterans, and so forth. He even shows them the recently agreed upon contract showing that he has full operational command over the local forces, and they have to fight his way. The clan way. Welcome to Dustball! |
2 June, 3064 – The Falcons arrive. They have brought the 7th Falcon Regulars and the Jade Falcon Eyrie Clusters of their Rho Galaxy. The 7th are regular forces and the Eyrie green. The 7th was almost destroyed at Tukkayid and has been rebuilding ever since, and lost its elite status then.
The 7th Regulars have 3 trinaries of mechs (45 mechs) and the Eyrie has 50 mechs or other units (5 binaries). We have secured a small area to be the proxy battle for Dustball. We show the Falcons around. As the defending force, we basically get to choose who we are using for battle. We are using two sets of elements: 1). The Command Company (since it’s been refitted and fixed back up) 2). All of the fighters we have – 18 from Hell’s Black Aces, the 18 from the local government, and the two we captured from Blair Atholl – 38 fighters. They only have 20 fighters at their disposal, but they are all clan fighters, and clan pilots. We will be interweaving the battle over the landscape. Dustball is a nasty world, settled once because people thought it had a lot of mining potential, but it didn’t, and few people live here any more, in five domed cities. We are fighting outside the domes, in heavy winds. The locals know the winds, and their aerospace fighters should have an advantage, even though they are just regular pilots. They are sending against our defense: One full trinary from the 7th All 20 of their fighters 1 star of Elementals (25 total) So 20 points of units against our 12, plus fighters vs fighters. The fighters will be fighting in the space above the battle. Because this is a battle for a planet, we have negotiated for some things if they lose: 1). They will repair, fix, and rearm all of the mechs or fighters we salvage today. This does not include those we salvaged before. 2). We will gain one of their Broadsword DropShips they brought with them, as well as the crew. We have fought for a DropShip before in this manner, and we have gained the Union C, which we are using in this campaign, from the clans. The Broadsword isn’t as good though. |
June 3, 3064 – The battle gets ready:
Command Company Redux: Atlas Blood Asp B (gauss, 2x LRM 20, 4x Medium pulses) (Steel) Highlander (Ghost) Starslayer (Dagger) Hunchback – Replaced by Phoenix Hawk IIc Shadow Cat Prime (Gauss and some lasers) Uller A (Gauss and some lasers) Vulture Prime (Longshot) Wolfhound - Now a Vixen Lao Hu Catapult Now a Viper Bushwacker - Rifleman IIc– Pilot replaced by veteran from 3rd Company We still have the Catapult, Bushwacker, and Wolfhound (the Hunchback was destroyed) and that gives us a few mechs in storage, but we have added four captured mechs to this company to really push it, and help us fight against a front line, ish, unit. Enemies: 2x Cougar 2x Black Lanner 2x Thor 2x Loki Hunchback IIc Man o war Uller Fenris 2x Fire Falcon Night Gyr All regular, save for the pilot of the Night Gyr, who is elite (the equivalent of IS veteran or super-elite, respectively). Star Colonel Icaza is fighting us directly. Many of the omnis are prime versions. This is that sexy Night Gyr -  Here we go! |
The area has some hills and elevation, but not a lot, and a bit of rough, and that’s it. No woods, grass, pavement, buildings- nothing else.
Turn 1 - We win init. This may end quickly. We pushed on the south flank, they on the north. They have six mechs they moved forward. I focus some fire on the Man O War, who moved out in front. We begin to crack the armor of their Man o War with our Blood Asp, who hits an ER Small laser They crack the armor of our Starslayer with a Thor and hit a medium laser on it Their Uller nails the LA of our Starslayer with its LB5X and hits two actuators there. After lots of damage, our Viper nails the hip and lower leg actuators on their Man o War After taking 160+ damage, it falls hard. Our Starslayer took 40+ and is still standing. Good first turn for us! We savaged one of their heaviest mechs, and that’s a good start. Turn 2 – We lose init. Their Man o War manages to stand. We have to take out those Cougars, they pack so much weaponry on a little body. That prime running around? Two large pulse lasers and two LRM10s. On a 35 ton mech. That’s ridiculous, but they are slower mechs (5/8 movement). We need to tack that thang down. They run a Black Lanner at us, and then a Fire Falcon. I hop the Starslayer behind a level 1 hill. A Fire Falcon bases, and it above, my Uller. ER Large Laser from their Black Lanner #2 hits the Head of my Atlas and goes internal, but hits nothing there. Their Fire Falcon Prime #1 hits the LA and destroys it, of our Uller Our Blood Asp gest a limb blown off their RA of the Man o War ER Large Laser from their Uller nails the H of our Atlas with an ER Large Laser and destroys the mech and it is down. Nasty!!! Our Vulture destroys the LT and CT of their Fire Falcon Prime #1. Nobody falls That was not a good round. Turn 3 – We win initiative at least. At least we still have the gauss on the Uller and I’ll keep it going for now. Their Uller charges our north flank. A Blank Lanner’s MASC forces it to freeze and it hits its hip actuator and stays standing. Don’t know how that happened. I leap the Starslayer adjacent and next to their Uller. They push forward with the other Black Lanner, Fenris, Fire Falcon, and Cougar. Their Fenris runs next to, and above, my Blood Asp. Our Blood Asp destroys the RT of their Man o War Our Highlander’s Gauss nails the LT of their Cougar Prime and hits the engine twice and LRM10 once Their Cougar Prime’s large pulse laser tears into the H of our Uller and destroys it. Two dead pilots, damn! Our StarSlayer destroys the CT of their Uller Our Shadow Cat Prime nails the engine once on their Cougar D Then our Vulture hits the Cougar Prime’s H with its large pulse laser and its dead. As well as a RA and RL. Our Viper tears into their Fenris and this the enginex2 in the RT, and then destroys it. Elementals savage our Highlander. Their Fenris fell and destroys its LA Despite taking 40+, our Highlander remains on its feet. So, we took out an injured Cougar, an unwounded Uller and savaged a Fenris, while they took out a damaged Uller. That’s a good swap, although we’ve now lost two pilots. Turn 4 – We win init. The Fenris rises and runs far. I leap our Viper near their non-wounded Black Lanner. I try to put some weapons into the MASC’d Black Lanner to drop it to the ground. Our Rifleman IIc destroys the RT of their Cougar D Our Blood Asp follows by hitting its gyro once Their Black Lanner stays up We had three mechs with 20+ damage (Blood Asp, Lao Hu, Viper) and none fell Their Cougar D falls and hits its CT and this the gyro and engine enough times for a shut down. Turn 5 – We win init again. That was a good turn we fought, because we finished off a Cougar, and began to put some long range weapons into their Night Gyr. I still want to put down the wounded Man o War and Fenris, but both have very few weapons remaining, so for now, it’s all about taking down major threats. I MASC run the Shadow Cat by their Fenris. I decide to be aggressive with our Viper and leap it near a few of their units in the south. Our Rifleman Iic nails the engine on their Night Gyr once Their Loki Prime #1 nails the LPL and a heat sink on our RFL IIc’s LA Our Blood Asp destroys the LT of their Night Gyr , then nails thegyro once and engine twice more on the CT. Shut down city. Before it died our Vulture destroyed its RA as well Despite taking just 20+ damage, our Viper falls. Turn 6 – We’ve taken their leader off the board, and win initiative. Elementals move out to get around our Viper. Their Fenris runs behind our Shadow Cat. They begin to move Thors and Lokis down from range and guard things less this turn. Looks like they are beginning to consider a hail mary. Our Viper stands and runs behind a hill, but some Elementals were hiding here and it doesn’t look good. Their Black Lanner Prime #2 gets a through armor crit and nails the engine on our Shadow Cat Their Fire Falcon Prime #2 hits the targeting computer on our Viper, and then follows with a limb blown off, LL Our Vulture hits the gyro twice on their Black Lanner Prime #2. Dead mech. Elementals crack the gyro of our Viper Our Vixen destroys the CT of their Fenris Falling? Viper, Fire Falcon Prime Turn 7 – We win init again. I want to leave the Viper on the map, in order to sacrifice it, and use that turn to finish off and damage more of their stuff, but I just don’t see it worth the risk. I eject the mech after they move some folks over. The Fire Falcon tried to rise once and fell, but it does a second time and based the Viper‘s spot. In order to run over to the Viper’s spot, their other Black Lanner freezes its MASC. It falls down. Thors are leaping over as well. A Loki B is flanking us in the north. I focus fire on a Loki this turn. Our Blood Asp destroys the RA of their Loki Prime Our Vulture follows that up by opening it up in a few places, and hitting an ER PPC of it. Their Loki B destroys the LA of their Starslayer Our Starslayer nails the Loki Prime;s LT, and destroys it, damage transfers to the CT< it hits the engine and shuts it down. Our Rifleman IIc will destroy its LL as well. Elemental armor peppers out Lao Hu , for 40+ damage. No one falls. Well, we took out an undamaged Loki, and they destroyed an arm on a Starslayer that was wounded already. That’s a pretty good swap. We offer hejira, but they keep pushing. Turn 8 – We start things off by losing that initiative. I leap the Starslayer 5 spaces next to the west edge. Their wounded Black Lanner fails to stand once, twice, then stays in the same space. I begin to push forward to end this. I have barely touched stuff like the PXH that can lead the way. Their Fire Falcon rushes our Highlander. They push as well. Thors in the south, and the Loki in the north, and the Hunchback IIc has moved forward from guarding the fire support mehs to popping out. Blood Asp – Destroys LRM 100 on Black Lanner, explosion takes out the LT and blacks out the pilot. Rifleman IIc – Destroys the LA, LT, and CT of the Fire Falcon Thor B – Smashes the H of our Highlander with its LRM 20 missiles Thor D – Hits the Starslayer and destroys its LL. Vulture – Destroys the LA of their Loki B PXH IIc – Nails the LL and LT of their Loki B and destroys both Loki B falls and destroys RT, dead mech (XL engine) This turn they lost the barely touched Loki B, And the Black Lanner is now unconscious. Now they accept hegira. They have a Hunchback IIc, Thor B, Thor D, Man o War (savaged) and 5 squads of Elemental Armor. We have won! |
Fire Falcon, RT, H, LL, RL, RA, LA
Fire Falcon, RA, RL, LL, H, RT Uller H, LL, RL, RA, LA, RT, LT Fenris RA, H, LL, LT, RL Cougar Prime, missing H, RA, RL Cougar D missing RT, gyrox2, engine Man o War, reattach RA, missing RT Night Gyr, enginex5, gyro, missing LT, RA Black Lanner Prime #2, MASC frozen, hip actuator, gyrox2 Black Lanner Prime #1, missing LT, blacked out pilot Loki Prime, missing RA, LT, engine, LL Loki B, missing LA, RT, LT, LL Ours: Uller missing LA, H, dead pilot Atlas missing H, and pilot Rifleman IIc hit LPL Shadow Cat, engine Viper, tc, reattach LL, gyro Starslayer, missing LA, LL Kills – Vulturex3, Starslayerx2, Blood Asp, Vixen, Rifleman IIc We salvaged their: Cougarx2, Black Lannerx2, Night Gyr, Lokix2 And we get the pieces of the mechs that we blew up We lost two pilots, and can salvage all of the damage we took We captured the two blacked out pilots and they are our Bondsmen. |
Meanwhile, the battle in the air was easily won by our side.
As agreed, they fix up the salvaged and damaged mechs and fighters for free. Hell’s Black Aces lost some fighters, but with the ones gained and fixed, they’ll be one fighter up (they’ll have 19 fighters, but just 18 pilots, no bondsman were captured) We look over their DropShips. This is not the best front line units, so they don’t have the most advanced tech the clans have ever seen or anything. We’ll take a Broadsword, basically a clan version of a Leopard carrier, it can carry 5 mechs. Now it does have solid armor, weapons, and speed, but it’s no assault DropShip, it’s a carrier. But we take it for our own. We like the name it has, and we keep it. (Green Goblet). We also get the Magnus has invited the clans to stay on Dustball for a while, and get out of their mechs. As normal, a few Trials and such occur, and there’s quite a few Trials of Position by folks looking to move into the front, after their leader personally lost the battle. A few pilots from the Eyrie group have won vacant spots in the 7th. Magnus reports the good news to the folks in the Defense Cordon. |
June 5, 3064 – The battle for Koniz goes poorly, and we get word that Barber’s Marauders II have been destroyed as a unit, while the local militia are doing adequately.
June 7, 3064 – Although not on our “Supposed to” list, we jump from the Dustball system with the KF charged JumpShip we borrowed, plus a trio of Unions on, including the empty one. We arrive at a pirate point in the Koniz system. In system some Falcons were dropped, and then left and the transports and WarShips moved on. There are some JumpShips and escorts by the jumppoints. June 9, 3064 – Our two Unions and the Aces Titan arrive at the planet, and Hell’s Black Aces swarm about, keeping the handful of fighters not involved in the ongoing battles away. We contacted the units of Barber. Most don’t want to be taken in by the Falcons, and they can’t get to the local militia to help out them either. They are being hunted by more than 70 Elementals. So we offer them a way off planet, if they want it. All of them do. We gather up 6 Marauder II mechs with their pilots in various levels of destruction, and another 5 mech pilots are with them. The Marauder IIs had two companies of tanks, all destroyed here, and there are three vehicle crew that we rescue. They had about four fighters survive of their 15, but they joined the militia and are helping there. We blast off, and return to the Pirate point before the local clans can arrive from the jump points. Unfortunately, Major Susan Barber died in the battle protecting the retreating flank. XO Captain Teresa Larsen is here with her mech though. She is in charge. June 13, 3064 – We arrive back at Dustball, and the local Falcons haven’t even left yet. We unload the Marauder IIs and begin to fix and repair them. They agree to help us in Dustball while we’re here garrisoning the place. We pick up a trio of tanks for their crew. We hand out the Inner Sphere mecs we replaced in our unit temporarily to the 5 pilots that we saved. They are an elite unit. |
June 21, 3064 – The clan folks have jumped out of the Dustball System.
Many nearby worlds have fallen to the first waves of Falcon folks such as Koniz Victor Ian Steiner-Davion has brought a large number of forces with him, and he is teaming up with the Defense Cordon, Clan Wolf-in-Exile, Adam Steiner, Archer Christifori, and many others to bring some pain to the Falcons. June 24, 3064 – We have been asked to attend a local conference getting ready on Arc-Royal. Command circuits are available. We are paid for the entire three months garrison deal, and told that losing Dustball is minor compared to all of the worlds under siege right now. The Marauder IIs have joined us as well, in the 4th Union (which was supposed to be for clan salvaged mechs, but, okay, why not?). They have become a 4th company under the command of Magnus and Kilts and Commandos– Larsen Company (Their unit changed names after each person who ran it, so…) 6 Marauder IIs 5 other IS mechs we replaced 3 tanks All mechs are elite, and the tanks are regular (We’ll figure them out later if we have too) |
July 13, 3064 – Magnus unloads on Arc-Royal.
July 18, 3064 – A large set of battle-plans have been drawn up. Two major offensive are planed against the Falcon. One, Operation: Bludgeon, is aimed at hitting worlds the Falcons have just captured ,in order to retake them. The seconds, Operation: Audacity, is aimed at hitting the Falcons in their own territory. We are offered a spot with Audacity. It’s ultimate goal is to hit and maybe retake Twycross, as well as many other worlds in the region. The goal is to break up lines ,force them to return and more. Because we just raided Blair Atholl, our information on the Falcons is given to the local folks, and it seems like they are plucky, missing the on-going battles of Clan space, and this seems to be more about testing, blooding, and getting experience for their troops, as well as taking worlds. We have been assigned to the deepest world in the Falcons territory – Butler, that is being targeted by Audacity. There are a few issues with Butler, including a local WarShip in the system that guards it. We are going in without any other units. We are loaned JumpShips with KF engines in order to get us in more quickly., and to better time our attack waves. Ours head back to CC. We are signed on a retainer contract. After getting things ready, we launch, along with the rest of the Audacity operation, which is led by General Christifori. July 23, 3064 – While on Arc-Royal, the Black Aces introduce us to the Blue Star irregulars, who are also involved. They have a Fredesa class WarShip. The Aces told us they think the Irregulars might be ready to sell. They wanted it at first, but it’s been a major drain on their resources, and they’ve not kept it up well. We ask them if they want to sell, and they say no, not right now. But if they were to sell, they agree to approach us, since selling it to K&C or the Celestial Coalition would not upset the balance of power between the houses. |
October 17, 3064 – We arrive, right on schedule, in the Butler system. There is a Black Lion class WarShip around the planet, and Magnus discusses it. This is a Battle Cruiser, very powerful, usually used as the command WarShip for galaxies and whole clans. While Jade Falcon has always had a lot (4 or 5?), Magnus has no idea why it would be out there, this far away from space.
Magus contacts the local leader. They have just two trinaries of the 9th Falcon Talon Cluster of Gamma Galaxy. Star Colonel Dev Iler responded to the batchall. His troops are veteran (equal to IS elite). He will defend Butler with all of his forces. We are granted safcon to Butler. October 19, 3064 – On our way down, we notice that the WarShip is looking very beat up and savaged. It was damaged a while ago. The Butler Ship Yards, built by Falcon a few years ago and making JumpShips, is also here, but in another planet in the system, and guarded by a separate group of defenders. It’s naval only (no ground base, just the shipyards). |
October 20, 3064 – We arrive on the planet of Butler and meet the Star Colonel.
We want Butler, but they can’t let us have the system, which would include the Ship Yards, the only place Jade Falcon can service and repair their naval assets. None are under repair, but we see DropShips and fighters out there. Defending the system would require the Star Colonel to add them to his forces. We just want Butler in this Trial of Possession, not the Shipyards nor the system. Agreed. We will fight tomorrow, in the desert of Skava. We are using our entire force, but they have no aerospace assets guarding the world (they are by the Shipyards) so we bid away our Aces. We will be using the full battalion. We have Command Company, plus the salvaged mechs from Dustball, and the folks there too. We have 46 mechs (we lost three pilots and captured two), and we have a point of 5 elementals as well. Plus the 18 tanks. We don’t feel Larsen Company is ready for action yet, they are still using a lot of new mechs and they have damaged Marauder IIs not fully repaired yet. They will get the Broadsword we just captured if we lose. Instead of fighting in a huge melee, we will be fighting three trials, one company of our mechs against two of their stars. The winner of two out of three wins the Trial of Possession. |
October 21, 3064 - We have agreed to send out our weakest company to begin things, against their greenest one.
3rd Company: Rooster We moved a veteran pilot elsewhere here. Cyclops Blood Asp B (gauss, 2x LRM 20, 4x Medium pulses) Highlander Starslayer Hunchback Razorback Uller Sha Yu Catapult Shootist Bushwacker 5 Elementals We have 11 mechs, that are mostly regular, and the point of 5 elementals as well, (that are clan regular). Our foes? Cougar Koshi Thor 2x Loki Fenris Ryoken Black Lanner Masakari Uller It’s fairly light, and again, all are veteran for clans. This is their Black Lanner omnimech, one of their common medium mechs.  |
The desert is cool today. We set up our units and get ready….
We win initiative. The Desert this chose is dead flat. No elevation, woods, roughs, nothing. This part of the desert does not have massive sand issues, it’s a rocky, flat landscape. They must have wanted to remove any chance of us using tactics or the landscape against them. Turn 1 – We set up a wedge in the middle, led by our Cyclops, Highlander, and Blood Asp. The Elementals are right under the Blood Asp. I have a Hunchback and Shootist escorting them, due to their heavy guns. Everybody just races for each other, no attempt to hide, dodge, or run away. This battle could be very savage and very quick. Despite the first turn, we moved at each other so fast that we are in medium range of most long range weapons (A few short ranges) and already within line of fire of medium lasers and such. We concentrate fire on that Cougar and Uller. I want to drop a pair of mechs to give us numbers, and I want to pull down multiple weapons right now. That is the Uller A with a gauss rifle, and the 2x ER PCC Cougar. Both are strong mechs with light armor (because they are light mechs). They focus fire mostly on our Cyclops. Our Highlander’s gauss slug slips into the Uller’s LA and just smashes it. LRMs follow up and destroy it. Their Uller’s gauss smashes the LT of our Cyclops, after other mechs peppered it, and goes internal, taking out an LRM 10. Our Bushwacker’s LRM5 nails the RA of their Uller and hits the gauss rifle, it explodes, and destroys the arm. After cracking open the Cougar in four places, our Sha Yu’s ER Large Laser knifes into their Cougar’s LL and destroys it. Dead leg. ER Medium Lasers from the Shootist adds a gyro hit to its CT. Masakari weapons fire into the Cyclops and destroy its LA. It then hits a pair of leg actuators in the LL. Their Uller falls and the pilot blacks out. He Cougar falls too, and in doing, breaks the RL off. Our Cyclops falls hard too. Turn 2 – We lose init and keep on driving at each other. Our Bushwacker bases the downed Cougar, and our Sha Yu the Uller. They come in hard, and base our Cyclops with their Black Lanner and Ryoken. I keep it on the field as a way to even stuff. They just dole out a lot of weapons into our Cyclops, and destroy both RT and LT for a shutdown mech (XL Engine), they also destroyed a leg too. Our Shootist’s AC20 carves into their Fenris’s CT. Our Hunchbacks AC20 hits the same spot, and the Fenris’s CT is destroyed Unfortunately, we miss with a lot of major weapons on our mechs (they ran fast + we aren’t the sharpest shooters in the world). After weapons fire, we kick the downed mechs, and the Bushwacker kicks and destroys the Cougar’s H (it was still firing this turn, so I needed to focus on it). Dead mech! We kick the Uller’s CT but nothing major follows. Turn 3 – Their Uller is still blacked out. We win init and finish closing with everyone. Our Elementals have gotten on their Uller’s hex. Many mechs have based each other. This is going to be nasty. We do focus some weapons on the Masakari though. Their Masakari just savages our Bushwacker, which had based it. The Bushwhacker loses a RT after an ammo hit and then it’s LA. (XL Engine shut down of our own). Our Blood Asp goes internal on the Masakari in three places Our Catapult destroys the Masakari’s LA. Their Thor nails the ammo on our Catapult in a through armor critical and it ignites. Boom! CASE keeps it alive (no XL engine). Our Highlander’s gauss shot cracks the H of their Loki Prime, and it’s dead. Barely even touched! Our Elementals aim and blow off the H of their Uller. Our Razorback nails the Masakari’s CT and hits an engine once. Our Catapult falls, hard. The pilot blacks out as well (good for the goose, good for the gander I suppose) Despite taking a massive ton of damage, and needed a 10 to remain standing, their Masakari does just that. That’s alright, kicks time! We kick: The Masakari with the Hunchback, Starslayer. Hit a pair of leg actuators. It falls hard. Our Sha Yu kicks their Ryoken They Kick: Masakari glancing blow on the Hunch, it’s fine. Their Thor A kicks our downed Catapult, and destroys its CT. Dead mech. We lost a undamaged Bushwacker and Catapult. They lost a Loki and we finished that Uller. Meanwhile, we devastated that Masakari. Turn 4 – Very little movement. Mostly just maneuvering for kicks, punches, and such. Their Masakari failed to stand twice, and broke its LL on the second fall. Our Highlander’s gauss cracks open their Thor A twice. Their Ryoken Prime nails the H of our Sha Yu, already a bit damage from missile fire earlier, and the pilot dies and the H is destroyed. Our Starslayer’s large laser destroys the RT of their Masakari and it shuts down (engine hit) (we also destroy the other leg with our Uller). Our Blood Asp destroys the Thor A’s LA. Our Elementals destroy its LL. They dealt 60+ damage to our Highlander, but it still stands. Other than their Thor’s lost leg, none of their tumbles. After a ton of kicks, their other Thor is on the ground, the Thor A gets kicked in the LT and the ammo is hit and destroyed. Our Razorback is missing a RL. We offer them hegira. They have: Basically dead Thor A Thor Prime Damaged Ryoken Black Lanner Koshi Three untouched (ish) mechs, and not a lot there. We have an untouched Blood Asp, lost about 40% of its armor Highlander, Shootist, Starslayer, Uller, Hunchback, 5 Elementals, Wolfhound and a damaged Razorback. They have four mechs standing and fighting, two heavies, a medium and a light. We have two assaults, a heavy Shootist, a full squad of Elementals, the nasty mediums of Hunchback and Starslayer, plus a light in the Wolfhound. We are in a much better position. They have four mechs left. We have 6, plus the elementals, and our mechs are better and nastier. They accept our offer, and we have won the first wave. |
Them:
Uller missing LA, RA, H Cougar, missing LL, RL gyro, H Loki Prime missing h Fenris, H, RT, LT, LL, RL, RA, LA Masakari missing LA, RT, engine, LL, RL Thor A, missing LA, LL, LT Ours: Cyclops,LRM 10, missing LA, hit actuators, RT, LT, LL Bushwhacker missing RT, LA Catapult RA, LA, LT, LL, RL, H, pilot blacked out. Sha Yu missing H, dead pilot Razorback missing Rl Kills – Hunchback, Buchwacker, Elementals, Highlander, Starslayer, We salvaged their: Cougar, Uller, Loki, Masakari, Thor. We get the Fenris parts as well. We lost a Catapult, and a pilot. Two pilots of theirs were blacked out, we captured them as bondsmen. |
After an hour of cleaning things up and such, we move to the second battle. This time, 2nd Company heads out on our behalf:
2nd Company: Flash Mother Zeus Blood Asp B (gauss, 2x LRM 20, 4x Medium pulses) Highlander Starslayer Hunchback Shadow Cat Anubis Now a Black Lanner Prime (with LRm 10, SRM6, ER Large Laser, 2x ER Mediums) Vulture Raven Now a Cougar A (with twin LRM20 launchers) Sha Yu Shootist Enfield Now a Loki B (Gauss rifle, LB5 X, 2x SRM 6 with Artemis, ER Small Laser) This company has a few veteran, a green pilot in the Sha Yu, and some regulars. Our foes? Mad Cat Prime Turkina Prime (With 2x ER PPC, 2x LRM15, and 2x LB 5X) Thor Prime Cougar Man o War B Vulture C (with 2x gauss) Shadow Cat Prime Fire Falcon Nova Black Lanner Their assault class Turkina and Mad Cat are clan elite, the rest are clan veteran. The Turkina is supposed to be like a jumping Daishi in a lot of ways. It's just a heavy, jumping, nasty, assault mech.  Alright here we go. |
Once again, the featureless map is here, and ready to rock.
Turn 1 – We lose init, and the same battle strategy ensues. Just moving in fast….holy crap! Our Shadow Cat’s gauss rifle shell just blasted the H of their Nova. I wish I had targeted a bigger mech! Nasty, we focus fire on their Turkina, and open up its RL and hit two actuators. It took 60+ damage and fell. Otherwise, not a lot of hits by anyone. Two of our mechs, Hunchback and Loki B took 40+ but are fine. Turn 2 – Now things are going to get serious. I hope! It’s all their Turkina can do to stand, and it can’t move (movement was reduced, and it’s normally just a 3/5 mech, so it just has enough movement to rise). As such I have much better numbers to hit it. I focus all of our fire on that assault mech. Of I can follow up the death of the Nova last round with the Turkina this one, I drop them to 8 mechs quickly, and remove their biggest threat. Their Vulture C drops two gausses on the RL of my Hunchback and destroys it. Nasty! Their Cougar tears into our Hunchback’s LA and destroys it too. Our Shootist’s AC20 nails the RT of their Turkina and hits an LRM 15. Their Black Lanner cascades an ER Large Laser at the CT (internal) of our Loki and hits the gyro twice. It falls down. Well, we both got in incredibly lucky shots I suppose. Their Turkina and our Hunchback and Loki both fall down. The Loki is dead (destroyed gyro). Their Turkina took 100+ damage, but still no kill shot on it. That sucks. Turn 3 – We push forward even more. I win init. We base their downed Turkina, and it again stands, but doesn’t move. I turn the Hunchback. I still have that AC20, and I intend to use it until they kill me. They run up a Fire Falcon and hop a Shadow Cat next to it. We fire the Zeus’s hot laser lovin into their Turkina and destroy its RT. Then our Cougar’s LRM volleys nail it and destroy its RL and LA. We also hit its gyro once Our Highlander nails the ammo in their Cougar’s RT and it explodes. The pilot blacks out from the feedback. Their Black Lanner destroys the CT of our Hunchback. Dead mech. Their Turkina falls along with our Zeus (even though it just took 20+ damage). We kick the Turkina with our Starslayer and hit its engine once and gyro once – dead mech. Their Man o War kicked our Shootist but it’s still standing. Turn 4 – We lose. We stand the Zeus, and like their mech, are unable to move it much afterwards, and they move some mechs next to it. Three all told (Fire Falcon, Black Lanner, Man o War). We set up some nice lanes of fire into their mass. Their mechs cascade virtually all of their fire into the Zeus this turn, and it works. Takes 120+_ damage, loses a LA and LT, and shuts down (XL engine) Our Starslayer destroys the LT on their Fire Falcon Then our Vulture destroys the Falcon’s RT and it shuts down (engine hits in both torsos) Our Sha Yu also destroyed its RL too. Our Blood Asp tears open their Mad Cat, and it’s critical in two places. Then our Shadow Cat lances a gauss slug and hits the LRM20 in the Mad Cat’s RT. Kicking time! Our Shootist kicks their Black Lanner to the ground after hitting a hip actuator Their Thor kicks our Black Lanner, then nails its RL actuators. Our Sha Yu misses a kick and falls. Dummy! Both Lanners fall. Not a bad turn. We have them down to: Thor, Black Lanner (with hip damaged), Shadow Cat, Vulture, Mad Cat (damaged in multiple places), Man o War. Their Cougar pilot has not woken up yet. They have us down to Highlander, Blood Asp, damaged Starslayer, damaged Black Lanner, Shadow Cat, Vulture, Shootist, Sha Yu, Cougar A. That’s an advantage to us. We offer them hegira, but since that would result in them losing the world, they keep on going. Turn 5 – They wrest initiative from us. Our Black Lanner rises and moves a bit. Theirs falls once, twice, then rises. Just massive basing in the middle. Our Sha Yu scramble sup and away easily. Their Thor just ends any chance of our Starslayer continuing this battle after it based the Thor, by destroying its LL and RL both. Our Blood Asp nails the wounded leg of their Black Lanner with its LRM20s and destroys it. Our Vulture follows that with a smashery of the Black Lanners RT. Dead torso. Their Mad Cat just unloads with a full salvo of fury on the slowed Black Lanner and it loses three pieces . But that’s the last salvo that Mad Cat will unloose, after our Cougar A’s LRMs just hit its exposed parts over and over again. We hit the ammo in both torsos (machine gun in right, LRM in left) and the pilot blacks out, and the mechs shuts down. Most of the mechs that I wanted to target are gone. Umm….I’ll kick their Thor with my Shadow Cat I guess? It hits, but does very little. Turn 6 – Cougar is still blacked out. They are just blood-frenzy now. They base all of our mechs. Although I run back with some. Our Sha Yu destroys the Ct of their downed Black Lanner. Their Thor hits the H of our Vulture with its LRM salvo. It goes internal, and hits the sensors and life support once each. Our Vulture returns fire and destroys their Thor’s RA. Their Vulture nails the LL of our Vulture and blows it off. Our Blood Asp hits a pair of leg actuators on their Thor. A gauss slug from their Shadow Cat blasts our Sha Yu and destroys its RA. Our Highlander’s SRMs find the Thor and hit it s few times, and destroy its LB10X ac in the LA. Our Sha Yu stands but our Vulture tumbles as does their Thor. Our Blood Asp kicks and destroys the LL of their Shadow Cat. Their Man o War kicks the downed Vulture and nails the LA and destroys it. Our Shootist kicks and hits the Man o War, and it falls. Cougar still does not wake up. Turn 7 – We win init. Their Man O War fails once, and the pilot blacks out. We base the Thor and it has nowhere to go when it stands. Our Cougar’s LRMs hit the engine once on their Thor. Then AC20 from the Shootist destroys the Thor’s LT after hitting the ammo there. Dead mech (XL Engine). Their Shadow Cat is hit numerous times and its CT and numerous other parts are destroyed. (Kill by our Highlander). All of their mechs are passed out or dead. We have won the battlefield. |
Theirs:
Nova missing H Turkina missing RT, LA, RL, gyrox2, enginex3 Cougar missing RT, blacked out pilot. Fire Falcon, missing RT, LT, RL Black Lanner LT, LA, H, RL, RA Mad Cat missing RT, LT Thor missing RA, LB 10X, LT. engine x3. Shadow Cat H, RA Ours: Hunchback LL, RA, RT, LT, H Loki, gyro twice. Starslayer missing LL, RL Sha Yu missing RA Black Lanner, missing RL, LA, LT Zeus, missing LA, LT Vulture hit sensors, life support; reattach LL, missing LA Kills – Shadow Cat, Starslayer, Vulture, Cougar, Sha Yu, Shootist, Highlander We capture three pilots and salvaged their Thor, Mad Cat, Fire Falcon, Cougar, Man o War, Turkina, and Nova. Only our Hunchback is a pure loss, and we didn’t lose any pilots this time. The third battle will not be fought and we have taken the planet of Butler. |
Oct 24, 3064 – We are giving the Falcons about a week to get their things together and head out. The Black Lion Warship, the Red Eyrie, is controlled by a Falcon captain, and it was badly damaged in the Refusal War of 3057 against Clan Wolf. They brought it here and built the shipyards here, and began to do repairs when nothing more pressing was needed.
That was seven years ago. They have restored the engine and some weapons, but not all, and the internal structure since needs some work, but it structurally sound, and lots of outside armor is in bits and tatters. There is a lot more that needs to be done. They estimate it would take a while to fix it at full strength. More than a year. The local Falcons will lift off for the shipyards and head there for a while. We contact the captain of the Red Eyrie and send a batchall for a Trial of Possession for it. They can’t use it in combat, so they agree to use their fighters against Hell’s Black Aces. But they demand something of equal worth. Magnus points out that most Inner Sphere units would just take it. They would use a Trial at all, we could just capture it right now. The fact that we are using a Trial at all shows something. But, nevertheless, they won’t be budged. Magnus agrees to leave Butler if we lose, and our unit won’t come back for six months (although we can’t promise other units won’t follow). But they give us their full crew for it as well. They agree. We are using 18 of Hell’s Black Aces, upgraded with some fancy clan fighters, and we offer to loan them our two omnifighters for the battle, but they are fine with what they know. They’ve captured one WarShip and DropShip already from Falcon. Can they do the same here? |
We have –
18 elite fighters, Black Aces They have – 20 regular fighters, Falcon The clanners have lost a lot of battles in aerospace, and good pilots have been able to beat them again and again. Snow Raven infamously lost a battle against a periphery nation (Outworlds Alliance) this year too. Many battles were won (including the Aces, as a reminder, and they are some of the best fighters we have in the Inner Sphere, and they are….not) Hold on… Let’s grab some dice The Aces win, and lost 8 fighters, three of which are salvageable. The clans lost 13 fighters, four of which are salvageable So we salvage the four from the clans, hand them to the Aces, and they use the extra fighter they had from the previous campaign to keep their numbers at 18, although it will take around 45 days or so to get them back in that shape. We have captured the Black Lion class Red Eyrie (in in the major universe, the Black Lion was taken by General Christifori, who led the attack on Butler in lieu of us, and then just gave it to Wolf-in-Exile since he didn’t want it or want to fix it up. So we took it with a Trial, and now we have the right to it. And we won’t give it away.) We discuss getting it refitted, since no major naval assets are being fixed right now. Could we barter for it? We offer money, or the Broadsword DropShip we took. They aren’t really that interested. So we’ll just use it as a glorified JumpShip for now. |
Nov 3, 3064 – The Falcon presence on planet Butler has ended as the last of their forces blast off to the local Shipyards.
Nov 5, 3064 – We get word that major strikes have been successful in multiple venues. Twycross is undergoing a huge battle on the planet. But the Falcons struck deeper into Lyran space as well. Nov 12, 3064 – After attacking the Ghost Bear Dominion and getting trounced, Hell’s Horses are sent packing, and their leader is killed and replaced by a Warden Khan, and the Horses begin to move to a more Warden viewpoint. Nov 17, 3064 – A huge naval flotilla from the clan front has jumped into the Butler system and move out to the Shipyards. They contact us. They aren’t interested in fighting for Butler, not right now. A damaged Aegis heavy cruiser begins to get repaired and serviced. Nov 25, 3064 – General Christifori just captured Twycross, and blasts off leaving behind defenders. The major battle remaining is Blair Atholl. Victor Davion has landed with ComGuards to fight against the Falcons here. |
Dec 15, 3064 – Archer Christifori also arrived on Blair Atholl to support Vic.
We begin discussions with the Aces. We are choosing not to extend their contract via emergency clause as of right now, and if they want to leave and head out for something else, they are welcome to do so. Dec 21, 3064 – General Adam Steiner arrives at the nearby system of Blackjack and begins taking more systems from the Falcons. Dec 28, 3064 – After engaging in battle on Blackjack, saKhan Samantha Clees arrives in system, grabs the troops, and invites the General and his forces to come to Blair Atholl. They will be granted safcon there. Jan 10, 3065 - The Aces leave Butler and head for Blair Atholl, where they have signed a quick contract with the Defense Cordon. We pay them the balance of their deal. They make a ton of money (Less than we made, so our profit helped to defray their costs). Plus we gave them a lot more, because they helped us win the WarShip. Sure, there’s no WarShip clause in their contract, but we like to be nice when it’s warranted. |
Feb 20, 3065 – Khan Marthe Pryde arrives on Blair Atholl and the strongest units begin to unload there.
Feb 27, 3065 – General Adam Steiner lands on BA as well. March 11, 3065 – General Steiner, and Victor come to an agreement. The Jade Falcon incursion has ended, the planets held have, mostly, switched sides, and Blair Atholl will be held jointly as a sort of training grounds between Lyran and Jade Falcon forces. We are contracted to keep Butler safe for now. We expect the Falcons to come and smash us soon. We have a planet deep in their LZ and next to their shipyards. They won’t let us remain free for long. April 8, 3065 – Diamond Shark arrives at Twycross and issues a batchall for the system from the local defenders. April 14, 3065 – Twycross falls to a very determined Shark attack. |
June 8, 3065 – Another large Falcon flotilla arrives in Butler, this time they begin to make their way to the planet. Magnus grants them a safe conduct and passage.
They initially want batchall for our WarShip first. Magnus demands their Aegis WarShip, damaged in the Shipyards as the security in case we win. It’s only fair as a counter-demands, and the Clan admit it, and withdraw their batchall for the WarShip, but instead just make it for the planet of Butler. Magnus agrees to meet them in the desert, with just one warrior, in an Atlas. If we win, we get another Broadsword DropShip, and if they win, they get Butler. They agree. June 12, 3065 - We send out… Steel in the Blood Asp. This is our best pilot, in our best mech. They send out an clan elite We are using the Blood Asp B, with the gauss rifle, 2x LRM 20, 4 medium pulse lasers, enough heat sinks to fire them all, 4/6 movement, and almost max armor for the 90 ton frame. They have.. Turkina B, with 2x large pulse lasers, 2x er large lasers, 2x medium pulses, 2x er mediums, 3/5/3 movement, Targeting computer, 25/50 heat sinks. It’s a nasty Turkina of love. BV? They have 7661 with their elite pilot. We have 5655. Not that close, unfortunately. But anything can happen, right? Right? |
Again, the flat open area awaits
Turn 1 – Steel runs, and they stand still. Our gauss cracks their LL Our LRms hits for 12 and a miss (we needed a 5 on that miss) Medium pulses hit three times. They cascade every singl weapon for a hit at the Blood Asp. Asp took 60+ and the Turkina 40+ -= no one falls. Turn 2 – We lose init. We run and turn five, and they run 4 and base us. Our Blood Asp: Gauss at the RT, LRM200s both hit for 12 missiles each, medium pulse laser nails the RT in a through armor critical and nails a jump jet and engine. We hit the LT, go internal and nail a heat sink. Their Turkina: Every weapon of their hits again. No misses. They smash the RA and hit our LRM 20 there and the shoulder, then the engine in the LT. Each mech took 60+ and is standing. We both kick. They kick us, and we them. Nothing else happens. Turn 3 – We win init. They are internal in the RT and LT. They went overheat last turn by 13 from the engine hit and their weapons payload. We are internal in the LT and RA, and 4 overheat from our engine hit. They don’t move…. Hmm. I run around behind them. (There was nowhere they could run to overheat like that they had 1/2/2 movement and when we won initiative, we won.) They can’t get every weapon on us. They only put another 40+ on us, and we drop another 60+ on them…plus…our gauss blows off their LL. We kick the downed mech and nail it in the CT. Turn 4 – We lose init. We walk around their mech. Despite the huge number they need, they stand (clan elite pilot is nasty) and turn to face us. They have all of their weapons when we have lost an LRM20. Their ER Medium Laser lances out and nails the gauss in our LA, and it explodes the arm. ZZZT. A large pulse laser stabs us and smashes our LT. Then a final laser lances out and hits our exposed CT and nails the engine twice there and shuts us down. Suck! But…. Our gauss slug smashes their LA, and then LRM 20 hits the RT a bunch. Then our medium pulse laser follows up and destroys their LT. They also have an engine shut down. So….um….who wins? We agree that we both destroyed each other’s mech, and thus both of us won, and we get the second Broadsword and they get the planet. Well bargained and done. We like the name on this Broadsword as well (Roost of War) and keep it too. |
June 24, 3065 – We leave Butler, and our contract officially ends as the planet fell to Falcon.
We earned….192 million after expenses (one year deal vs the clans, always worth a ton of money) and paid the Aces…65 mill. June 28, 3065 – We arrive in Twycross, with the Black Lion, the borrowed JumpShips, our six DropShips we took, and the two Broadswords we gained Clan Diamond Shark is happy to give us safcon down to the planet. Diamond Shark has always been willing to deal, and make friends. They make and sell mechs to the Inner Sphere, and so forth. They want to use Twycross as their new base of operations in the area. We have fought against six of the invading clans, but never Diamond Shark. We offer a Trial of Possession for help in fixing our captured mechs. We want 10 clan techs to accompany us, as well as full repair and refit of our salvaged units. They laugh at Magnus, gently. They are more willing to sell their services. They offer to sell us the tech resources here on Twycross that we need, as well as provide local techs, free of charge, to fix our stuff. We agree to it, and the estimated time of fixing is roughly 3 weeks. |
Meanwhile, they offer to sell us some mechs they have ready for sale, Ha Otoko BattleMechs and Mad Cat Mark II. The Ha Otoko has no clan building blocks (no clan ferro, XL Engine, double heat sinks, etc). just clan style weapons. It’s cheap, feature a pair of LRM20s and LRM10s, and thus is better than an Archer or many other long range mechs. 6.5 Cbills for one.
Meanwhile they have an upgraded Mark II Mad Cat. It’s a 90 ton mech with 2 gauss rifles, 2 LRM 10s, and 4 er mediums. 4/6/3 movement, 13 tons of ferro armor, endo, the XL engine, and 14/28 heat sinks. If that’s our desire, we can purchase some of those, as well as license the techs needed to keep them operational. 25 mill for a Mad Cat Mark II. They have a star of Ha Otokos ready to go, and a pair of MC Mk II. We can buy as many as we want. What about fixing up the WarShip? What’s the possibility of that? Let me show you a secret! The Diamond Shark representative reveals an underground production and restoration facility right here in Twycross. It was built by Steel Viper, when they controlled the planet. The DS Aero Assembly Site Rho is being configured to build one of the Shark’s favorite fighters, and it makes Broadsword DropShips too. It can do some repairs for ships that are atmospheric, and it has a lot of winches and ships that can fly out and do service to a ship in orbit, like,say, our WarShip. So we could pay to get it refitted here, and they’d be happy to do it for us. It’s better to get them to do it, since the Black Lion was updated with clan tech over the centuries since it left the Inner Sphere with Kerensky. Repairing it would be pricey, hold on. The most expensive parts are fine (engine, KF battery, sensors, stuff like that). It’s a lot of weapons, internal structure, armor, and more. Looks like it would run around…. About 1 billion CBills to fix up. We can pay 500k now, and then the rest after they figure out how much it’ll take. And it will take roughly 2 years to finish. |
A Broadsword is worth a lot of Cbills, does the Shark want the two Broadswords we captured? Not really, so they would only take that deal if they are making money off it. They’d take two Broadswords now as down payment, (They are worth around 575k combined) and then we’d still owe 500k later. That way they make a little money off the trade.
After some negotiation, we get them to toss in a pair of Ha Otoko mechs as well. Then we give them 100,000 Cbills of the money we made, as a future down-payment, that will reduce future costs, and give them cash to use now to help defray future costs. That’s pouts us at roughly 600,000, right? Well, we have some mechs we took and salvaged what about them? They a walk through our mechs to see what we have. Again, we would need to give a lot more than their value to make things work, but… We have gotten these 30 mechs from this campaign, many of which are already fixed up from the Trials we won. Kraken Phoenix Hawk IIcx2 Griffin IIc Vixen Viper Hellhound Cougarx5 Rifleman IIcx2 Lokix4 Black Lanner x2 Night Gyr Uller Thorx2 Masakari Turkina Mad Cat Fire Falcon Man o War Nova We offer them Lokis (19 mill a piece)Thors, (21 mill a pop), and those 6 mechs are 120 mill. We also offer a the Man o War, (26 mill), Nova (11 million) and such. They are really more interested in newer designs, like the Fire Falcon, Cougar, and Black Lanner. (Cougar is 6.1 mill, Black Lanner 18 mill, and Fire Falcon 4.7 mill). We offer them some of each, and we come to a deal. We sell them Lokix4, Thorx2, Man o War, Uller, Cougarx3, Black Lannerx2, Fire Falcon, Nova, Vixen For: 253, mill sticker price, and they give us 200 mill in discount for it. That leaves us just owing 200 mill on the far end, if the costs end up being that much, it’s possible they could be a lot less or more, after they crack it open A couple of days later we buy the rest of the Ha Otokos with the money we made. We’re happy to be future buyers as well. |
Things we are leaving Twycross with:
Bondsman – 4 regular, 5 veteran, 2 Vandal Omnifighters 1 squad of Elementals We bought these! 5 Ha Otoko These Garrison Units: Kraken; Phoenix Hawk IIcx2; Griffin IIc; Vixen; Viper; Hellhound; Rifleman IIcx2 These Omnis: Cougarx2; Night Gyr; Masakari; Turkina; Mad Cat We lost: Catapult, 2 Hunchbacks 5 pilots We replace the Catapult with a Ha Otoko, and the 2 Hunchs permanently with a Hellhound and a Phoenix Hawk IIc Our five dead pilots are replaced by the 4 regulars and one veteran bondsman. Then we have the other four vets take the Turkina, Mad Cat, Masakari and Night Gyr, and they will join us on our future battles. |
This is an update for later, but I roll some dice, and here’s the update on our WarShip:
Red Eyrie, Black Lion class, Battle Cruiser, will be completed by Diamond Shark on the 16 of December, and it will run 930k total, so we owe the Sharks another 130k. So let’s look at this ship more completely: The Black Lion, clan version, is worth around 15 billion CBills, and we could likely get more because it’s upgraded with clan tech through and through. If I approached an allied state, like the Free Worlds League, or a neutral one like the Combine, that’s a major offer. What makes the Black Lion so lethal? It is. The Black Lion, clan version, is the 4th most powerful WarShip of all time by Battle Value. What’s nastier? The Leviathan being used by Ghost Bear is #1, followed by the Mjolnir by the Lyrans, and the Farragut. Number 5? The Inner Sphere Black Lion. Here’s the Top Twenty by BV: Leviathan – 381117 Mjolnir – 273208 Farragut – 254469 Black Lion – 249326 Conqueror – 226970 Luxor – 202539 Stefan Amaris – 196548 Tharkad – 194645 McKenna – 193164 Thera (Carrier) – 190425 Defender – 177323 Atreus – 175777 Aegis – 174904 Nightlord – 167669 Dante - 166547 Agamemnon – 164084 Avalon – 156654 Liberator – 152215 Kirishima – 149893 Avatar – 137344 Those include a lot of Ships made right now (Thera for FWL, Agamemnon for FWL too, Avalon for Federated Commonwealth, Mjolnir for Lyran Alliance, Kirishima for Combine) and some of these are clan-only, like the Nightlord and Leviathan. The Black Lion fares well. The Black Lion: Has space for 4 DropShips, 10 small craft, and 20 fighters. It’s faster than our Aegis. It’s the typical 3/5 heavy machine. It has no point defense weaponry for taking down fighters – all of its weapons are naval in nature, and in fact, all are missiles or autocannons. Ours has the LF battery, the upgraded clan armor from the refit, and hull-sealant unit common among clans. It’s an awesome piece of work! |
Diamond Shark agrees to send a group of folks to the Coalition to make official contact. We send one of our DropShips home with Shark, the once-empty Union now full with Larsen’s Company and a lot of salvage. It’s raring to go. Larsen is leaving behind our extra IS mechs and taking some clan mechs to upgrade their unit even further. So we send the Union back home to the CC. We also have to return the JumpShips we borrowed from the Arc Royal Defense Cordon.
We ask to use Twycross as a staging post for raids against the local clans, but are rejected. Sadly. July 29, 3065 – We arrive at Arc-Royal. We rent a pair of local JumpShips for the next bit, and return those we borrowed at no cost from the Cordon. General Adam Steiner, despite fighting for the pro-Katrina side, was elevated by Victor and put in control of the region. He won a lot of major battles, and Adam Steiner emerged from the Falcon Incursion as one of the heroes of the Inner Sphere, and is credited for not losing a lot more systems. Magnus asks around for some contracts. We actually want to return and do some more raids. There’s no reason to stop simply because the Incursion ended. However the Alliance is not interested in doing any raids into Falcon space right now, and other folks, like the Kell Hounds, Clan Wolf-in-Exile, or any others are not really interested in pushing against the Falcon, particularly in a state-sponsored manner. They want to spend money fixing their stuff and keeping the peace right now. There’s no reason to stay out here then. |
August 5, 3065 – Larsen Company, our mech parts, and mechs not being used, and two fighters, arrived at Epsilon Eridani. Duke Essex greets Larsen when they arrive to welcome them, and find out what sort of mission would they like. Sometimes after large battles, a unit wants some downtime. But they are raring to go, so we decide to give them some front line work, rotating them right in.
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September 12, 3065 – We arrive at the Alyina System in the Falcon OZ. Clan Wolf attacked here in the Incursion, but were forced back off world about 5 months ago. The local units here are the:
5th Falcon Regulars (Mu Galaxy) – veteran, 80% strength 22nd PGC – green, (Lambda Galaxy) Naval Attack Star - veteran They grant us safcon down to their world and we have asked for a Trial of Possession for their Odyssey class JumpShip at the jumppoint (they have around 5 of them here), since we don’t own our own, and are renting the two we have. We put up our Gazelle if we lose. They would normally want to do an aerospace battle for it, but as we don’t have any fighters, they grant us a battle on the ground. They are defending a fort they control |
September 13, 3065 – Our battle gets underway
We are using Command Company of us, against a full trinary of their veteran front line forces from My Galaxy’s 5th. However, a reckless commander bid away some mechs, and instead is coming at us with 10 mechs and 5 points of Elementals, and a Binary of mechs (10 mechs, 5 squads of Elementals). However, she is coming in heavy for the battle Our foes: Turkina Mad Cat Night Gyr 2x Fire Falcon Black Lanner Loki Ryoken Vulture Dragonfly All clan vet, and 5 squads of Elementals are as well. This is the current iteration of our Command Company: Atlas Blood Asp B (gauss, 2x LRM 20, 4x Medium pulses) (Steel) Highlander (Ghost) Starslayer (Dagger) Phoenix Hawk IIc Shadow Cat Prime (Gauss and some lasers) Uller A (Gauss and some lasers) Vulture Prime (Longshot) Wolfhound Lao Hu Ha Otoko (with regular clan pilot) Bushwacker (with new regular clan pilot) This is their Fire Falcon  |
We are on a map with ferrocrete, some rubble, a few small buildings, all heavily reinforced, and a level 1 wall. But no elevation or trees.
Turn 1 – I lose initi. We are on the south side, and they on the north. I created an attacking wedge of our Atlas, Blood Asp, and Highlander in front, with major units, like our Vulture and Lao Hu and Bushwacker flanked around. The range and scout mechs are on the sides, and they have distance, and some building to move in and around. We can’t see two of their squads, the other three are guarding their rear. They move down to the wall on the north side, and use it for partial cover (no damage to the legs when we hit them, and +1 to be hit). We target a mech a few hexes back of the wall, and a little bit further away, their Night Gyr. Our Atlas gets things started by cracking the Night Gyr with all of its long range weapons – Gauss, ER Large laser, and 20 missiles from the LRM 20. More weapons converge on their Night Gyr, and blast away armor in a variety of places exposing it in three areas. Their Loki carves into our Sha Yu, and opens it up. A Fire Falcon’s er medium laser hits the Sha Yu’s RT and destroys I – dead mech (XL shutdown) Our Ha Otoku’s LRMs cascade into their Night Gyr and hit the gyro once and shoulder of the LA. Their Night Gyr falls after taking 120+ damage, and the gyro hit as well. Turn 2 – We win init. We begin driving up the center and….wait….our Atlas gets hit by mines? They’ve heavily mined the area! Our Atlas took around 15 damage to its legs. That’s a clear violation of zellbrigen, the clans rules of honor. Magnus, on the sidelines, protests, calling this a surat, bush league tactic that shows no honor! But the response of the commanding officer on the field is that mercenaries like ourselves deserve no honor. Battle continues. Now expecting mines, we takes things more cautiously. Our Wolfhound runs across the area, triggering multiple minefields, and losing its LL in doing so, but opening up a path for our heavier units in the middle. We continue forward. They move their units to the wall, and their Night Gyr fails to stand, twice, and the pilot blacks out on the third fall. Just a couple of their lighter mechs are not against the wall this turn. A gauss slug from our Uller smashes the RA of their Fire Falcon A and destroys it. LRM5 shots from the Bushwacker tear off the RT of the FFA as well. Our Starslayer opens up their Dragonfly Prime RT and LL. Then our Lao Hu’s LB20X smashes it for 12 pellets, and they hit the hip and lower leg actuators on the leg and the machine gun ammo in the RT – boom! They carve a lot of armor from the damaged and fallen Wolfhound. It loses three parts, and then their Vulture B’s LRM20 missiles destroy the Wolfhound’s CT. They hit the Atlas with some weapons fire. The Atlas took 60+ damage (including mines) and is still standing. Their Dragonfly falls and hits it’s LA. It stupidly has SRM4 ammo there, and that it hit, and once again, the explosion blows off the limb, and the double explosion feedback is nasty, and it actually kills the mechwarrior – not blacked out. (MW took damage from the fall, and was hit in the head once already by LB20X shot). The Fire Falcon A also tumbles. Turn 3 – We win init. Their Night Gyr is still out. We push forward even more. We’ve lost a Wolfhound and Sha Yu to their savaged Fire Falcon and Dragonfly, so it’s basically even by that count (one light and medium each). And we have the Night Gyr down for now as well. They pop their two elementals, hiding behind local buildings, right by our Phoenix Hawk IIc on the east flank. After falling once, the Fire Falcon stands and moves away. Their Elementals just pepper the PXH IIc with their SRMs and lasers, twice. It took a lot of damage, but not that much in one place. They even hit its head twice for four damage. Steel’s Blood Asp just pulverizes the LA of their Vulture B. Our Ha Otoko nails the Vulture’s H with missile fire once, and then peppers the LT, hitting the LRM 20 there and it breaks. Our PXH IIc fires ultra AC10s at their elementals, and kills two troopers. Our Shadow Cat nails the LL of their Fire Falcon Prime, and follows with an ER Medium laser, and hits a foot actuator there. More weapons fire into the Atlas, which is not open on its RL and LA. Our Phoenix Hawk IIc is fine, and their Fire Falcon and Vulture remain standing. Our Atlas took 80+ and is fine. Turn 4 – We lose init. I hope away the PXH IIC from their Elementals. They pull them back behind the wall. Our Bushwacker runs into some more mines on the west flank. It falls from the damage. I move our Lao Hu up to protect it in case anyone wants to come over and play. Their Black Lanner does. Their Fire Falcon Prime pulls back and moves away from the battle. We pull back in the center, and a few mechs push past the wall to keep the pressure on. I run the Starslayer next to their Black Lanner. They concentrate a lot of fire on the Bushwacker and us on their wounded Vulture and somewhat exposed Black Lanner. Our Atlas smashes the RA of their Vulture and destroys it. Their Black Lanner destroys the RL of tour downed Bushwacker The Starslayer sets their Black Lanner reeling after an alpha strike with all of its weapons Then the Lao Hu hits it with its LB20x for….20 shots. Doom! That thing is peppered through next Sunday, and its RL is destroyed, and it’s LL gets its hip, foot, lower leg, and upper leg actuators all hit, and that means it’s immobile (just as if both legs were destroyed) and that’s just rare. I don’t know if we have ever immobilized a mech that way before. Mad Cat Prime weapons destroy the RA and LA of our Bushwacker. Finally their Loki manages to destroy the RT and it shuts down (XL engine) Meanwhile our Phoenix Hawk IIc knifes Ultra AC10 love into their Vulture for two hits, and one nails the CT and hits its engine twice and gyro once. Their Vulture falls along with the Black Lanner who destroys its RA in the fall. Dagger’s Starslayer kicks the Black Lanner and destroy its LA. All of its weapons are gone, and it can’t move either. Their Night Gyr still has woken up. Turn 5 – We win initiative again. They push forward with everything, seeking a blaze of glory, and Elementals expose themselves by jumping over the wall. The damaged Fire Falcons move in. Their Vulture tries to stand, fails twice, hits its engine a third time, and shuts down. We move some folks back from the Elementals, but our Atlas can’t retreat much. It’s too exposed. We use the Turkina as a target of force this turn. Expecting it to die this turn, I alpha strike with the Atlas on the Turkina to open things up, and hit with everything, but just 9 LRM missiles. Their Turkina returns fire and drops the Atlas’s RL. We get a limb blown off crit on their Turkina’s RL as well, with our Uller. Our Ha Otoko goes overheat to embrace their Fire Falcon Prime in the warmth of LRM missiles, and we destroy its RL and hit the engine once. Steel’s Blood Asp has destroys the RA of their Turkina Mad Cat anger eviscerates our Atlas’s RA. Our Lao Hu hits the Fire Falcon A and destroys its CT. Elementals hit the Atlas multiple times, and find the LRM 20 ammo in the LT and it explodes (CASE, no XL Engine so it’s still fine). Our PXH IIc and Starslayer finish off the wounded Elemental squad. Our Atlas just hits the dirt hard, and our pilot blacks out in the fall. Their Turkina and Fire Falcon Prime, newly denuded of legs, also fall. Their FF Prime destroys its LT and shuts down (enginex3). Angered by our name-calling and that they are losing to mercs, they aren’t in any sort of a mood to accept hegira and we are not offering either. We are finishing this thing. They have – damaged Turkina, Mad Cat, Loki, Ryoken. 4 stars of elementals. Turn 6 – We lose init. I order forces to move in and protect the blacked out and fallen Atlas. That includes out Highlander Blood Asp, and Lao Hu. They don’t come in – smart. They only push with the Elementals. We focus fire this turn on that Mad Cat. I want it out of the equation. LRMs are on the downed Turkina to finish it, and we have some weapons at a nearby Elemental squad. The Ha Otoko nails the Turkina with an LRM salvo, (just fired one LRM20 for heat reasons) and just for 12 missiles, but still manages to find the gyro twice on the mech and it is now fully immobile. Mad Cat damage destroys the LL of the Atlas. Elementals aim their lasers at the Atlas’s H, but miss and hit elsewhere. SRM missiles peppers it badly, and hit the head once more, and then destroys its LA and nails the gyro once. Concentrated short range weapons on the Elementals finishes off a squad, by the Lao Hu’s LB20x. Their Mad Cat dodges a lot of weapons fire coming its way, and only took 40+ damage this turn. Turn 7 – We win init, our Atlas pilot awakens, and we eject it after waiting a bit for the Elementals to base it. Then I move in some Elemental killers. They move forward, and get ready for the end. We base a bunch of their mechs to get kick shots on them. Their Ryoken is based by four of our guys. They focus fire on the PXH IIc. Ultra AC10s kill three Elementals from our PXH IIc. Our Highlander’s gauss and LRMs tear into their Mad Cat and get a limb blown off on its RA. Their Elementals carve out some damage on the PXH IIc. They go internal on the RA and hit a shoulder. Their Mad Cat follows and destroys the RA. The Blood Asp’s long range weapons (gauss, 2x LRm20) smash the Mad Cat some more, while the short range weapons (4x medium pulses) finish off the wounded Elemental unit. Twin gausses from the Uller and Shadow Cat smashes their Mad Cat’s LL and destroys it Our Pixie falls. Their Mad Cat falls. We kick the Ryoken with the Highlander and destroy its LL, and our Lao Hu kicks its LL, but it‘s not there, damage transfers to LT, and we destroy the LT as well. Our Starslayer missed a kick and falls. Our Blood Asp kicks and kills an Elemental. Turn 8 – We keep init. I move everything forward, and I stand the PXH easily. We have based all of their remaining units – the downed Ryoken and Mad Cat, and the unwounded Loki, and the two Elemental squads. Here’s what they do to us. They stab fire into our PXH IIc with everything they can muster. They don’t have a lot left. They do 40+ damage to it, and hit a pair of leg actuators and it falls again. We drop the unwounded Loki A after focusing 120+ damage onto it. The Blood Asp destroys its LA but then hits the machine gun ammo in its…center torso and it explodes. Who puts ammo there? The Starslayer stood, based their Mad Cat, and fired everything into it, and hit its engine 4x in the LT, RT, and CT. Our PXH IIc, which was becoming a nice Elemental killer, took out two more soldiers. Longshot’s Vulture Prime finished them off. We kicked the downed Ryoken and destroy its CT with our Uller. We kick their Elementals and kill two people in the squad that is left. Turn 9 – We kill the remaining squad of Elementals without taking any major damage. The kill goes to the Shadow Cat’s gauss slug. We have destroyed all of their units, and captured one pilot. |
Them:
Fire Falcon A, H, LT, LA, LL Fire Falcon Prime, missing RL, LT, enginex3, LL actuator hit. Night Gyr, gyro, blacked out pilot Dragonfly, missing LT, LA, dead pilot Vulture B, missing LA, RA, gyro, enginex3 Black Lanner, missing RL, LA, RA, LL all four actuators hit Turkina, reattach RL, missing RA Mad Cat, reattach RA, missing LL, enginex4 Ryoken LA, H, RL, RA, RT Loki A, H, LL, RA Us: Sha Yu, missing RT. Bushwacker missing RL, LA, RA, RT Atlas missing RL, RA, LT, LL, LA, gyro Phoenix Hawk IIc missing RA Wolfhound H, LT, LA Kills – Lao Hux3, PXH Iic, Ha Otoko, Blood Aspx2, Starslayer, Vulture, Uller, Shadow Cat We salvaged these mechs from that battle: Fire Falcon Prime, Night Gyr, Dragonfly, Vulture B, Black Lanner Prime, Turkina, Mad Cat, Fire Falcon A, H, LT, LA, LL Ryoken LA, H, RL, RA, RT Loki A, H, LL, RA We also took 4 injured, but not dead Elemental warriors, and heal them and take them as bondsman. We have won the JumpShip |
September 16, 3065 - Magnus issues a Trial of Grievance against the honorless Falcons that used mines on the battlefield. That is a surat Inner Sphere tactic and an abuse of the batchall system and against the rules of zellbrigen. Magnus’s Trial is, at first, not acknowledged, but after continuing to push, it is accepted.
A Circle of Equals is drawn up. And the units combine. The pilot of the Turkina is fine, and she steps in, the leader of the group and the one who approved the tactic. Magnus steps in as well. As both are MechWarriors, they are unaugmented (not with armor or mechs or anything) Magnus is the better pilot (he was on the fast track to a bloodname when we captured him). He has won many Trials of Grievance. He is faster, stronger, and smarter. She is enraged, and he uses that, calling her surat, tell her she is worse than the Inner Sphere trash, because actually knows what honor is, and then not using it. Where is the vaunted Jade Falcon ideal of true honor? After getting her all worked up, Magnus punches her, and slams her to the ground. After about 15 minutes, a resounding crack is heard, and Magnus steps away. He has broken her neck, and she has died. The Trial of Grievance is over. Magnus addresses the assembled Falcons, and tells them to send a message to their people. Let them know what happened this day, and how the Falcons have lost their honor. He tells the Star Colonel that he knew that the violation and mines would be used, and was okay with it, either literally or tacitly. After all, if she had violated Zellbrigen without his okay, we would have killed her himself yesterday. “We have re-taken your honor. That you learned a lesson about honor from a mercenary? That is your true disgrace” |
September 17, 3065 – Didn’t want to stay too long and wear out that non-existent welcome. We gather the captured Odyssey JumpShip:
The Odyssey is a weaponized JumpShip – quite common among the clans. It features 4 ER Large lasers 4 large pulse lasers, 12 medium pulses, and 2 gauss. It also has 8 anti missile systems as well. This gives us the ability to defend, a bit, against fighters that might see a JumpShip as vulnerable. It has 4 DropRings. We send one of the rented JumpShips back (We are just one jump from Lyran Space). On the Odyssey we’ll have everything but the Buccaneer. That will be on the Merchant JumpShip we are renting. September 18, 3065 – We leave the Alyina system |
September 20, 3065 – We land on the Lyran planet of Blackjack. After a few hours, a local HPG worker brings us a message, that was transmitted to all nearby places. It’s the Blue Star Irregulars. They are a couple of jumps away at Black Earth (just two jumps distant) and they ask for our aid.
October 1, 3065 – We arrive at Black Earth. The Irregulars, with their Fredasa WarShip, Kerensky’s Blues, are here. It was damaged in battle about a year ago, but it’s been barely fixed up. They are garrisoning the world after it was taken in the counter-attack from the Falcons. There are some Falcons here too, JumpShips and a small warship are in system. They have been having trouble keeping the world. The Lyran Alliance doesn’t want to make the issue official, and we were still nearby, and luckily we were not under a contract. On Black Earth, the locals really embraced the clan way of life, as opposed to many where they were simmering and wanting to be freed. The Falcon flag flowed freely here. After a year, the people have gotten very restless, and the Falcon knows, so they have send some unusual troops here. A bunch of infantry, battle armor and techs have arrived – not a mech to be seen. They begun to set up MASH stations and salvage camps for the locals, and since they have not attacked, nor been attacked, and they’ve been here for a while. The Lyrans don’t want to start a ruckus. If the Blue Stars employed us then a units paid by a unit paid by the Lyrans would be doing it, and it would still be official. But if we take them off without being under contract, just of our own good will, then that would be okay. |
October 3, 3065 – Magnus meets with a local leader of the clan forces here. They are here to help the locals and are not here in a military capacity. “Perhaps, but you haven’t won Possession of this world. You don’t have the right to be here.”
The Sphere people don’t care about nuances of possession. . Maybe not, but we do. They were told to be here by their leaders, so they are not violating their own orders or anything Magnus issues a Trial of Refusal against their presence and orders here. They are here without winning a Trial of Possession against the holders, who won the planet from them, they can’t come back until they win it back. Since when did Jade Falcon start skirting the rules of honor this much? Magnus tells them about the mines used against his team on Alyina and now this. That is beginning to tell a very dangerous story of Jade Falcon. Have you been corrupted by contact with the Inner Sphere? We agree to a Trial that day. |
They have no mechs at all on planet, and they are unwilling to do a Trial of any sort against ours. But we do have a unit of Elementals we have been using.
We use our one squad of Elementals, against theirs. Both are regular… I’m not going to sim this, it’ll take a while. I’ll just toss one D6: 1 Total Victory, we only lose one Elemental 2 Normal Victory , we lose 2. 3 Pyrrhic Victory, we lose 3 4 Close loss, we lose 3 5 Normal loss – we lose 4 6 Total Loss – we lose the whole unit, all 5. There we are. We roll a …3 It was close, but we win, and they agree to leave the world. Meanwhile, we replace the three dead warriors with three we captured. We also captured one in this battle, so we still have 2 extras. October 9, 3065 – The last Falcons leave the planet. Magnus has been talking with the Blue Stars about their finances and WarShip. They are in debt, they really can’t afford to pay us post-battle. We were able to win a trial to force them off world, but if not, we would have had to have peeled off a lot of Elementals and perhaps some friends from the system that dropped down on us. (Fighters) That would have been rough to have compensated for. Magnus points out that their unit used to be a proud three regiment unit. Now they are down to one after the clans, and they can’t rebuild as long as they have the increasing debt. We could offer them more than money. Imagine what they could do with another battalion of mechs, right now. Just think about it. |
October 12, 3065 – We blast off from Black Earth.
We’re getting tired of teaching the Falcon about honor. We jump into an uninhabited system halfway between us and our destination. With the KF battery on the Odyssey JumpShip, this is not as much of a big deal, since we can jump again in the case of a misjump. We jump immediately with the military stuff, and the Merchant will follow after it charges up. We arrive in the Derf system, about 20 light years coreward (up) from Butler. It’s way back there. We find a pair of binaries from a PGC here, since Derf is not highly valued. There are no major naval assets here, no WarShips, not a bunch of assault dropships, nothing. Just a handful of JumpShips. And their 20 mechs. October 15, 3065 – We arrive on planet after issuing a batchall for their Odyssey JumpShip. We’d like to capture another, and send this Merchant one back to Lyran space. They are defending with all 20 mechs. They choose to defend a stretch of land with a few small hills and ridges, and some woods. October 17, 3065 – Our Gazelle has landed, and the Trial is about to begin! We had to wait until it landed, since we are using it as the counter –possession if we lose the battle. |
We have sent all of our forces like normal, are arrayed around the battlesite. We like to watch. There are no defending forces watching, like normal. We have 20 mechs of theirs, and we are sending out 16 of our own:
Command Company Plus the lance of veteran pilots we captured – Night Gyr, Masakari, Turkina, and Mad Cat. That means we have a heavy set of mechs getting added to the field on our side. I’m not going to list all of our foes, but expect us to be facing the expected garrison stuff – a variety of IIc, stuff like Hellhound, Vixen, a pair of Spirits, a Pinion, and such. The usual. Here we go! |
We begin on the east flank, and they are arrayed on the west.
Turn 1 - We win init. I use the Atlas-Highlander-Blood Asp trinity to create a core to charge down the middle, again, with the Masakari and Turkina right behind them, and the Lao Hu, Bushwacker, Night Gyr and Mad Cat on the flanks, and other mechs patrolling the north and south flanks her and there. The map has a handful of small ruins, long since abandoned and destroyed. They move down the center a bit, but also to the north behind some buildings as well. None of the ruins are higher than level one. We focus fire on their Warhammer IIc. They split fire. With our heavy weapons, we just lance a lot of weapons into their Warhammer IIc. Our Masakari’s ER PPCs, Blood Asps Gauss and LRMs, Ha Otoko’s LRMs, and more. Our Shadow Cat’s gauss shells fits snugly into the RA crack of their Warhammer Iic and it is blasted off. Our Highlander smashes the WHM IIc’s LT and nails two medium pulse lasers there. None of our mechs takes more than 20+ damage. Their Warhammer took 100+ damage and fell. Turn 2 – We lose init. We move forward in the center, confident in the strength of that core unit. Meanwhile, we flank with our forces. They mostly keep at the same range, and their Warhammer IIc rises, and moves back a bit. All of the sudden, Elementals pop out from behind multiple places on the north and south flanks. That is a total violation of zellbrigen! They lied about what units they had to us. They didn’t have any Elementals, they had just 20 mechs. The first thing we’ll do is finish this round of battle, since the surprise is major. We have a few missile mechs focus on the Warhammer and finish it up while the rest move to a target of opportunity. We fire on the Warhammer IIc and take out its RL with the Blood Asp and the Ha Otoko hits exposed sections for four engine hits and a gyro. We have two major targets of opportunity. The first is that Hellhound. We fire a lot of mechs with big guns (gausses) at it first, and that means the Uller, Shadow Cat, Highlander, and the Masakari’s ER PPC which are essentially the same thing. We fill it with holes, and then some other mechs move in to exploit. The Vulture Prime just tears into it with pulses and LRMs20s, as a bridge mech that does both the holes and the missiles. It just lights up the medium mech, and we take out its RT and then its CT. Dead mech. (we’ll also destroy the RA and RL later on) The other attack of opportunity was their lighter Vixen. It moved fast, but it got here quickly, so we use a lot of pulse lasers and close range weapons on it. If you remember, we captured a Turkina B, and we never changed it. That thing has 2 large pulse, 2 medium pulses, 2 ER larges, and 2 er mediums. And 25/50 heat sinks to fire them all. We basically just carve those energies into the light Vixen, and it’s LA and RL are destroyed. But a lot of other folks miss. Their Elementals just take out our surprised Starslayer. It was badly positioned, and we lose four parts of it to the savaging it takes. Meanwhile their mechs attack our Atlas, and carve off 60+ armor. It falls from the damage, Before turn three begins, Magnus, has decided to declare the opposing unit dezgra. This means it is without honor, tainted, and the rules of engagement are off. We are bringing in all of the nearby units that were watching. The 15 tanks from the Gazelle, the 24 mechs on the sidelines, and our squad of elementals. This is such a violation of zellbrigen, that even our recent Falcon additions are pissed off at these honor-less surats. Obviously, this is going to end quickly. They have ten units of Elementals, and the 17 healthy mechs left, against 39 of our mechs, 15 vees, and a squad of elementals. We offer no hegira, no safe way out, no honorable surrender. They are honor-less. Dezgra. Because of the massively overwhelming odds they are experiencing, we don’t want to risk losing any of our units, so we constantly eject when something gets badly damaged, goes internal, falls down, loses speed from tracks hit on a tank, loses a limb, a H hit that drops the armor, anything that could be a danger sign. Because of this it takes awhile, but we take them all down. |
Prior to dezgra announcement.
Theirs: Warhammer IIc, reattach RA, missing RL, enginex4, gyro Hellhound LT, LA, LL, H, Vixen missing LA and RL Ours Starslayer missing LL, RA, LA, LT Kill – Ha Otoko, Vulture, Afterwards, we have killed one of their pilots in a H shot, another from damage to the H, explosion of the gauss, and falls, destroyed five of their mechs outright, and Captured: Warhammer Iic, Vixen, Spiritx2, Rifleman IIc, Hellhound, Kraken, Griffin IIc, Peregrine, 2x Baboon, Guillotine Iic, Great Wyrm, Pinion 9 Elemental warriors survived battle. We take 18 regular warriors as bondsman. Now that we have they tell us that Khan Marthe Pryde, after the Incursion ended, issued an edict that Inner Sphere troops were no longer worthy to even engage in batchalls and such, and to begin to use the system that the IS was exploiting against them, and to be dirty, and exploit them back. But we have never soiled the rules of the game. So Marthe’s edict seems to have stepped past the bounds of what is honorable, since they have used, multiple times now, honor-less tactics against us. We were expecting to jump to Wolf Clan space next, but we have somewhere else to be, after we take the JumpShip we won and head out. |
Oct 20, 3065 - After wiping out the local forces, we get a message from a some locals. Apparently, a mercenary command, Storm's Metal Thunder, a regiment strong, and was destroyed in the Jade Falcon incursion. Some of the destroyed members went into hiding here on Derf, and were doing small raids and such against the local Falcons. Now that we've cleared a path, they would either like us to take them with us, or to secure them transit back home (but there are Falcon JumpShips and DropShips in the system, so that probably won't happen).
Magnus agrees to take them with us. We load up 5 mechwarriors without a unit and 2 Devastators, a Spector and a Hunchback, for a total of 9 folks, all badly damaged, and veterans. This is the second time we’ve helped keep the remnants of a destroyed merc unit and rescued them. There might be others out there we could help out, small units of resistance just trying to stay alive long enough on the hope that someone, somewhere, might come and save them, and throw them that life preserver We ask if these remnants of the Metal Thunder know of any other folks in a similar set in nearby systems. Umm….usually they were saved, like the death of the 1st Argyle Lancers on Crimond by the Falcons. They don’t know of any. Oct 25, 3065 – Clan Ghost Bear just took Rasalhague from the Wolves. Oct 30, 3065 – We arrive back in Twycross Nov 1, 3065 – After arriving and speaking with a Diamond Shark representative, we give them footage of the battles, the first showing the mined defenses, and the second the hidden, and secret elementals. We tell them about the edict Khan Pryde issued, and they can see the results. This is useful political ammunition to use against them, and the Sharks are happy to use it. We want to head to Falcon space, and issue a Trial of Refusal against the edict, but we are tired of the Falcons and their crap. Besides, technically, the policy would not be revoked until the Trial was won by us, so they could cheat the Trial. Typically clans tend to look down on that sort of circular logic – there should never be a hole in the Trail system like that, but the Falcons have recently veered off the deep end it seems. Conner Ward, an ex Falcon, will be pissed when he finds out. We decide to head somewhere else, at the suggestion of the Sharks. We had intended to hit Clan Wolf space now. Might as well do just that. Seiduts is one jump away from Twycross, and it was Falcon until a few months ago, and Clan Wolf took it from them. |
Nov 9, 3065 – We arrive in Seiduts. Wow are there are a lot of naval assets here. We are immediately flagged by a nearby Clan Wolf Warship, a Vincent mark 42, the Trailblazer.
They want to know who we are, and why we are here. Magnus reveals himself, we are here for a Trial on Seiduts for an escort and safe passage through the Wolf territory and to the Rasalhague system. They ask us to wait. About an hour later, a local star colonel contacts us. We want to get to Rasalhague to raid the Ghost Bears, that just took the world from the Wolves. They have forces en route to the border already planned, and we can just go with them, for free, after looking over our units info. We don’t need to fight for it. Alright then. December 3, 3065 – We arrive at Rasalhague. The Ghost Bear Leviathan, the largest WarShip ever made is here in the system. Magnus hails his former clan and then demands a batchall for a Trial of Possession for a lance of the latest Ghost Bear banner mechs that rolled off the lines. He misses them and wants them (Grizzly, Kodiak, Ursus, Arcas) to use personally. They share a laugh and after verifying our information they agree to safcon for us. |
December 7, 3065 - We land on Rasalhague. We have put up four mechs we captured in battle against the Falcons against the lance that we want.
Since the battle is for something smaller, the defending forces are smaller too. They have an elite star of front line mechs ready to punish us for our hope. Meanwhile we are sending five mechs of our own: Steel in the Blood Asp B Clan vet in the Turkina B Longshot in the Vulture Prime Dagger in the Starslayer Clan vet in the Cougar Prime (2x Large pulses, 2x LRM10s) Our Cougar:  Two assaults, one heavy, one medium, and one light, and four clan mechs in there. We are facing: Kingfisher Prime (2x large pulse lasers, LRm10, SRM6 Streak, 2x medium pulses, ER Small laser, max armor, 17/34 heat, 4/6, 90 tons) Vulture B Vulture Prime Dragonfly Prime Dasher B All clan elite. So, really elite. They have two heavies, the Kingfisher assault, and then a Dragonfly and Dasher as nasty little scouts. They both have powerful range due to their movement. (Dasher is 10/15 with MASC and the Dragonfly 8/12/8) They only advantage we have is that we have two massively armored assault mechs, both that are bringing some heat to the battlefield versus one of theirs. The Vultures are a mech with one of the most painful weapons payloads you will find, and they are fast too, but they are a bit of a glass jaw mech. The B is a mech with 2x er large lasers, 3x medium pulses, LRm 20, and 2x SRM6 streak. With 12/24 heat sinks – not enough for everything. They only have 8.5 tons of clan ferro armor, (roughly the equivalent of 10 tons of normal armor). They have the payload of an assault mech, and the armor of a Hunchback. So the Vultures will be our primary targets. If we can take them down, we may have some strong momentum against them. Our BV is 22126 with these five mechs and pilots. Theirs is 21391. This is doable. |
We are on the west ,and they on the east. We are using the Lake Area official map, and there is a small lake in the middle. (We have trees to hide in, they have hills and some trees)
Here we go!!! For deployment, we win init, so they place first, then we drop the Starslayer in the northern part here on the west and see their Vultures in the south by the hill. I position our Vulture to move into some heavy woods beside that lake. Turn 1 - We win init. Four of their mechs are here in the south by their hills, and I put everything else down there. I run the Cougar into some heavys. Our Vulture follows. Our Turkina moves up, and Blood Asp follows. Their Dasher runs behind the woods. I consider basing it with the Blood Asp. Instead, I don’t move the Blood Asp at all. I split our blood Asp between the Vulture B and their Dasher. Their Dasher moved 12 hexes and has a +4 to hit, so by standing still, I can better nail it. Our Blood Asp’s medium pulses tear into the Dasher and destroy its RL and LA Their Kingfisher gets a through armor critical and nails an LRM20 in our Blood Asp. Then another through armor crit hits a foot actuator. Annoying. Our Starslayer nails the LRM20 and engine one their Vulture B’s LT. Who falls? Our Blood Asp does, their Vulture does, and their Dasher does. As it falls, their Dasher nails its engine once in the RT. Turn 2 – We lose init. Our Starslayer hops over a river and begins to come on down. Their Dasher turns. Our Blood Asp rises and bases their Dasher. I don’t move our Vulture, Turkina or Cougar. Their Vulture stands. I hope they’ll either target me exclusively at the Blood Asp and thus give me good shots with the mechs in the woods, or they’ll target the closer mechs in the woods and give me a chance to keep my Blood Asp alive. Either way, we can take something from this. I can’t get a good bead on the Vulture Prime. Only our Starslayer and Cougar have lines of sight on it. Those two target it though. Our Turkina destroys the LT of their Vulture B, and then hits the engine once on its CT and shuts it down. We also take out hits LA and LL. Their Vulture Prime hits our Cougar and goes overheat to smash it hard, and they destroy its La and CT. Their Kingfisher unloads on our Blood Asp and hits the gyro once. Before it falls, it’s pulse lasers destroy the Dashers RA, hi ammo in the RT, destroy the C too. Our Blood Asp falls. So, we’ve taken each other’s light mechs, untouched each other’s mediums, We have destroyed their heavy and they have savaged our assault. Still pretty close. Turn 3 – We lose initiative. I leap the Starslayer into a better angle of attack, and then I leave our Blood Asp on the ground. I have to charge out of the woods because we can’t see any of their remaining mechs. Their Dragonfly runs next to our Blood Asp. Only our Starslayer can see their Vulture Prime. But we continue to fire at it, I have to target the Kingfisher. Uh oh. Our Turkina;s large pulse laser sheers off the Head of their Kingfisher and it goes internal, and the head blows off. Dead mech! (The [pilot doesn’t die, the head pops off, much like a arm or leg pops off as well). Their Dragonfly finishes off our wounded Blood Asp by destroying its RT and hitting the engine once in the LT. Dead mech. Their Vulture nails our Starslayer for 40+ and we hit it for 20+ no falls though. Turn 4 – We lose init. Our Vulture runs around behind theirs, and our Turkina leaps out. We leap the Starslayer close to their Vulture, and they pull back so we can’t see it. Our Vulture nails the gyro and engine once each on their Vulture. Our Turkina destroys the LL of their Dragonfly They deals 80+ damage to our Vulture with just two mechs and hit our LPL and LRM20 Only the D Fly falls. Not even their gyro-smitten guy does (nice to be clan elite) Turn 5 – We lose again, and I hop the Starslayer over. Their Vulture bases it. Battle is behind the level four hills, and our Turkina can’t get over. We back up our Vulture, and our Turkina moves over. We alpha strike the Vulture with our Starslayer. It hits the Vulture’s RT and destroys it, and then hits the gyrox2 with SRMs. Their Vulture is down. Meanwhile they destroy the LL and RA on ours. Our mech falls and our pilot blacks out. Which doesn’t matter. With just a legged Dragonfly left, we offer hegira, and they accept. |
We also take the four mechs we won – Grizzly, Ursus, Kodiak, and Arcas.
Theirs: Vulture B, missing RT, LA, LL and enginex3 Dasher H, LL Kingfisher, reattach H Vulture Prime, RT, gyrox2 Ours: Cougar H, LT, RT, LL, RL, RA Blood Asp, gyro, missing RT, enginex3 Vulture Prime missing LL and RA Kills – Turkinax2, Blood Asp, Starslayer, We salvage their Vulture Prime, Vulture B, and Kingfisher. We lost the Cougar. We took a bondsman though, the severed H removes it from the electrical current, and there is no ejection, so she is ours. One elite bondsman. For most of the mission, we have not had Magnus use a mech, he has been commanding things from afar, but he takes the Kodiak as his personal mech from here on out. |
December 11, 3065 – We have been discussing potential Trials with the local Bears. Maybe for a DropShip or a JumpShip or something. But they really aren’t that interested in doing so, and it would require a huge battle. On the other hand, we could use some more aerospace fighters. So we inquire about a Trial for some of those.
They’ll give us a star of fighters, plus five pilots, for a star of garrison mechs, plus five clansmen we took in this campaign, strait up, if we lose. We agree, and in a similar manner, we’ll have a star on star battle. Us: Magnus in Kodiak Dagger in Starslayer Clan elite in Kingfisher Clan vet in Mad Cat Prime Clan vet in Shadow Cat Prime Since she knows the mech, and it was fixed very quickly, our captured pilot will be using the Kingfisher we just took. Meanwhile Magnus is taking the Kodiak out for a spin Kodiak? It’s one of the nastier close range guys you’ll see: 100 tons 4/6 movement Almost max armor (280 out of 307 possible) 20/40 heat sinks Ultra AC20 ER Large Laser 2x SRM 6 Streak 8x ER Medium Lasers We have a long range weapon to harass a bit with, and then its all about opening holes and using missile and lasers to exploit them. We only have two tons of ammo for the Ultra, and you can go through it quickly if not careful, but that’s okay, because you can fire a massive quantity of lasers at folks too (8 ER Mediums makes 40 heat).  Our foes are all clan elite: Man o War Prime Gladiator Prime Black Hawk (Nova) Prime Fenris Prime Ryoken Prime So they are using three mediums and two assaults. Not a spread out group. We have two assaults, a heavy, and two mediums as well. They offer to have us fight in the same place as last time, it’s been cleaned. Why not? |
Turn 1 – I set up similarly to last time – Mad Cat to take the woods, with the Starslayer and Shadow Cat, up top since they both hop around real nice like. Our Kodiak and Kingfisher are beneath the woods and should be quick in to smash. We win init and they move to the top of the hills, I hop our two mediums to lines of attack with their long range weaponry, and then our Mad Cat takes the spot our Vulture was in before, and then we charge ahead, Kodiak leading with Magnus enjoying his time here. Four of our mechs (not the Mad Cat) can see their Man O War, and that’s good target.
We fire the Kodiak first on the 80 ton assault mech (with light weapons, by the way) and savage it with the Ultra ac20 shot hitting it twice, followed by some lasers. Their Ryoken’s ER Large Laser lances the H of our Mad Cat, and goes internal – no crit though. Nasty. That could have been a lot worse! Our Shadow Cat’s gauss opens another hole, and Starslayer’ large lasers do too, and then our Kingfisher’s accurate lasers and SR6 streak follow, and we hit its SRM ammo in the LT and it ignites. Boom! They carve damage into our Kodiak . It took 60+ and Magnus is fine. Their Man o War hits the ground so hard and fast that it breaks the hip on its LL doing so. Turn 2 – We lose init. We do similar to last time. Our hoppers leap over the river to the north, and with some cover. They try to stand with the Man o War, and after one failure, they do. But it’s a walking target at this point. Their Fenris runs around behind our Mad Cat’s position and the Black Hawk leaps next to it, and inside some light woods. We fire some mechs at the Man O War, but we concentrate fire on their Ryoken, except for the Mad Cat, who wants to punish their Black Hawk. Our Shadow Cat’s gauss snaps into a Ryoken, and our Starslayer misses it. Our Mad Cat mostly misses the Black hawk Our Kodiak though just launches a bunch of missiles and lasers at the Man o War and destroys is RA, and hits the gyro once on it, and nails another foot actuator. Their mechs mostly miss the Mad Cat. And their Man o War hit the Kodiak, but not even a full 20 damage. Their Man O War falls and destroys its injured right leg No physical combat. Turn 3 – We finally win init. They move off the Mad Cat, we leap to the center where some woods are, and push on the flank. They turn the Man o War and move the Gladiator into a nice firing lane with woods and partial cove protecting it. We focus on the Ryoken. Mostly. Our Starslayer smashes the Man o war with lasers medium and long, and SRMS too. It takes out the gyro and engine once it and its down. Their Gladiator’s gauss rifle hits the Kodiak, goes internal, and gets a limb blown off on its RL. Our Kodiak, before it goes down, tears into the damaged Ryoken and devastates its RT and hits the large laser in the RA. Then our Shadow Cat destroys the Ryoken’s LA. Our Mad Cat and Kingfisher fires a lot of stuff at that Gladiator and we begin the process of denuding its armor off Their Gladiator took 60+ and is standing, their Ryoken fell and hit two actuators in the LL, one of which is a hip on its RL. Our Kodiak obviously tumbles as well. Turn 4 – We win init. We move the Mad Cat next to their downed Ryoken after it can’t rise. Their Fenris bases the rear of our Mad Cat. Their Black Hawk leaps out and away. Our Kingfisher moves in to flank the Gladiator from behind while our hoppy mechs leap on top of the hill. This should push them away from the downed Kodiak. The Gladiator can’t hit the downed Kodiak from where it fled, so it targets the Starslayer and hits a bit. Nothing serious. Their Fenris does little to the Mad Cat The Mad Cat turns and hit the Fenris twice with its RA weapons while it smashes the Ryoken up into pieces after destroying its CT. The Gladiator is damaged by the ongoing weapons – gauss slug, and the Kingfisher unloading on it, and it is internal in for places with the Starslayer hits its gauss rifle in the la, which explodes and destroys the arm. The mech took an SRM shot to the H as well. Black Hawk ER Medium Lasers go internal on our Mad Cat and hit its LA shoulder and large laser. Then the Gladiator falls, the pilot takes damage (that’s 4 now) and blacks out. No one else falls. They have two mechs standing – Fenris, and Black Hawk, and we have an almost defeated Kodiak. We offer them hegira, and they accept. |
Theirs –
Man o war missing LT, RA, gyrox2, Rl, enginxex3 Ryoken RA, LL, H, RT, LT, Gladiator destroyed LA, pilot blacked out. Ours – Kodiak, reattach RL. Kills – Starslayer, Mad Cat We salvage their Man of War and Gladiator We capture the elite pilot And we take 5 omnifighters: 2x Avar 2x Turk Jengiz We have five fighters, plus pilots. We don’t have the transport for them though – not of our DropShips or JumpShips can carry fighters. All we can do is pack them carefully in the Buccaneer, and then, on arrival, unpack them – it’ll take hours to do it right. No fast deployment or anything like that. We fight a few minor Trials over the next few days for small things, and we get another 5 suits of elemental armor, with no one in them, and now have 2 squads of Elementals. |
December 22, 3065 – We launch from Rasalhague. I want to take some naval assets, like DropShips or some such, before beginning to head home. I don’t want to take anything else from Ghost Bear, but the Wolf is next door. Maybe we could just pop on over?
Actually, the Falcons pissed us off, but I don’t want to wear out our welcome. They might do some nasty stuff to us. We launch and arrive at Dawn. We issues a Batchall for a Carrier class DropShip we use to carry our fighters better. It’s a common DropShip and can be found in all of the clans. They have a pair in system, but we don’t have any aerospace assets, and they don’t want to fight for a DropShip over mechs on planet. They refuse the batchall. Magnus talks with the locals, and sends them our full dossier of forces. He points out that we never have cheated and our record is spotless. We haven’t always had that returned, the Falcon surat just cheated us by hiding an entire Binary of elementals on the battlefield, and ambushed us with them. But we are still with honor. Wait what? Absolutely. We are granted safcon. |
December 26, 3065 – We talk about the Jade Falcon Trial, where they intentionally did not give us information about the Elementals, and then used them to attack us. When they tell them we declared their unit dezgra and attacked it and wiped it out , they enjoy that. Despite sharing similar Crusader beliefs, Falcon and Wolf have always been at odds. They are only allies out of necessity at times.
They ask what world we took out their entire defense on. Magnus smiles. Do you want to take it? Perhaps! Then how about this. We do a Trial for the DropShip with crew. If we lose, then not only will we provide the location of the battle, but we’ll give you footage and tell you who else knows, so your clan and they can work together against the Falcons. Hmmm…. That they agree to. Sometimes it’s just about finding out what they want. They want a quick little battle to figure this out. They don’t want to lose a bunch of mechs and a DropShip too just for some info. So we agree to a quick proxy battle with one mech against one mech. We’ll even use garrison mechs for it. Magnus will be in the Kodiak They have an elite pilot in their Behemoth. The Behemoth is a 100 ton cracker of a mech, with 3/5 movement, no XL engine, 18 tons of armor, 10/20 heat sinks and its weaponry is simple and elegant. 2 gauss rifles, 2 large pulse lasers, and an small pulse in the head. We have 5327 BV and they have 6722 Can we win this solo match? |
We are fighting with some trees and other random elevation, it’s hear a bog, so we have some swamps around too.
Turn 1 - Magnus can’t see our foe. We win init and run at some woods. Turn 2 – Same. We run into some heavy. Same with turns 3 & 4. Turn 5 – We lose init, run 6 into some light woods behind heavies in front of a small lake in the northeast corner, and we spot their Behemoth across the water and by some woods. They hit us more, since we are still at distance. Turn 6. We lose init. We back out of sight. Turn 7 – We win init. I move to closer to where they were behind some trees. They our maneuver us and again long weapons fire nails us more than them Turn 8 – W have to close so we just run two space,s but we get 5 away, across the lake, and that’s short range of our AC20 ultr,a which carves into them twice. We took 40+ they 60+. We also hit their gauss ammo in the RT. Turn 9 – We lose again We walk into the heavy woods in front of us. They ,move to better range. We nail them with the Ultra AC20 again twice, and hit some actuators. Missiles and mediums follow and we dole out 80+ to them this turn. Their gauss snaps into our RL, and a larger pulse into it again and they go internal, but hit nothing. We took 40+. No one falls. Turn 10 – We don’t move, and they walk into some woods. We smash them twice again with the AC20 ultra and just destroy their RA. Lasers and missiles fire into the enemy mech and destroy their hip actuator on the RL and smash the engine once and gyro once on their CT. They reciprocate by smashing our LA twice and destroying it, and we both fall. Turn 11 – We rise, and they fail to once, and then they do. Ultra AC 20 just devastates their mech, and destroys the RT and RL. SRMs cascade in and finish it off with a shot to the CT a few times, which is already open, and smash the gyrox2 and enginex1. It responds by gausses and a large it still has (the other was in the destroyed arm) and takes down our ultra ac20 and blasts off our RL’s external armor and nails the hip We both fall. They are immobilized, and that is a win for us. Them – Missing RA, gyrox3, enginex2, RL, RT Us – Missing LA, hip, Ultra ac20. We have won a Carrier DropShip and salvaged the Behemoth |
A day later Wolf still wants the information, so they make us an offer. They will fill the Carrier with five more high quality Clan Wolf omnifighters in exchange for the information they want. We tell them we need pilots too, and they won’t give away their pilots, but Magnus points out that they have more than just Wolf pilots. After a few hours, they give us 5 bondsmen they captured from other clans, 3 Jade Falcon, 1 Ghost Bear and 1 Star Adder.
Welcome to your new unit boys! The Carrier is a strong fighter carrier, it can carry 10 fighters, its very well built, clan made and designed, well armored, fast, and has a lot of weapons. It’s good in a battle as needed. |
January 4, 3066 – We leave Dawn behind.
We have a battalion of mechs, plus tons of spare mechs, parts, and extra fighters that can be assigned to the salvage any time we need them, plus 2 squads of elementals, 15 tanks, 10 fighters with clan pilots, two clan JumpShips with KF batteries and a powerful unit. After leaving behind with just a battalion and some DropShips and Trumps, that’s not a bad place to be. We have gained a full company of forces at home and more. It’s about time to start heading back home. Before we do, Magnus looks around to see if there are any things we could or take. Any contracts running around? Perhaps from Rasalhague? Combine? Cordon? Well, look at this, we do have one from the DCMS. |
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